Task: Read the text and answer the questions below: Text States

International law is concerned mainly with the rights and duties of states. Even if states are not the only international law subjects, they remain the most important and the most powerful of the subjects of international law. The greatest part of international law is concerned with the rights and duties of states. States play the central and undisputed leading role in the creation of international law. However, the determination of whether an entity is actually a State can present a challenge. The generally agreed upon criteria for statehood are:

• Possesses a defined territory

• Inhabited by permanent population

• Controlled by an independent government

• Engages in formal relations with other states

The application of criteria is often subject to political considerations, however. Breakaway regions of countries often meet or are on the way to meeting these criteria, such as Kosovo, the Albanian-majority province of Serbia, but are not recognized as states by the international community.

State representation, where more than one government tries to represent a single state, is also an important consideration. For example, even though the Taliban religious movement effectively controlled Afghanistan prior to the U.S. invasion in 2001, Afghanistan was represented in the UN by the government that had been deposed by the Taliban but still claimed to be the country’s legitimate rulers.

Comprehension check:

1. What is international law mainly concerned with?

2. What are the generally agreed upon criteria for statehood?

3. In what cases is the application of criteria subject to political considerations? Text

4. Task: Read the text and fulfill the tasks below:

5. A defined territory is essential for a state to exist. A state must have a defined physical existence marked clearly from its neighbours. This does not mean that the territorial boundaries must be without dispute or that the frontiers must be delimited with precision. Many parts of China's borders have not been defined. The countless border disputes between China and its neighbours over the precise line of the frontiers does not mean that the disputing states are not regarded as states. Israel is a state, in spite of a refusal to define the extent of its territory precisely. In fact, Israel was admitted to the United Nations regardless of disputes over its borders. Albania was recognized in 1913 by a number of states notwithstanding a lack of settled frontiers. The list of states with border disputes is almost endless. The condition of a "defined territory" does not mean that the territory must possess geographical unity. The territory may consist of territorial areas, distant from each other or separated by another geographical entity. Before partition, Pakistan was located on both sides of India. Alaska is separated from the rest of the United States' territory by Canada.

6. Task 1: Give Russian equivalents: essential, delimited, precision, to be regarded as, admit, notwithstanding, partition.

7. Task 2: Give English equivalents: определённый, граница (2), точный, бесчисленный, отказ, перечень, отдалённый, обособленный

Task: Insert the missing words from the list below: