Legitimacy and Legal Rights of Revolutionary Movements with Special Reference to the Peoples' Revolutionary Government of South Viet Nam
![handle is hein.journals/nylr45 and id is 711 raw text is: LEGITIMACY AND LEGAL RIGHTS OF
REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS WITH
SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE PEOPLES'
REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT OF
SOUTH VIET NAM
THOMAS M. FRANCK*
NIGEL S. RODLEY**
I
INSURGENT MOVEMENTS AND EXTERNAL ASSISTANCE
NTERNATIONAL law is, or tends to become, what states do
in practice. In regard to movements for the overthrow of gov-
ernments, the traditional policy has been a rationalistic one which
attempted to maintain status quo regimes and to measure the
rights and duties of revolutionary movements by the degree of
their success in establishing themselves as the new status quo.
Roughly speaking, there were three grades of revolutionary self-
fulfillment. In ascending order these were: rebellion, insurrection
and belligerency. While rebellions had few rights recognized in
international legal practice, revolutionary belligerents at the
other end of the spectrum were virtually accorded equal treat-
ment in law with the regimes they were fighting to replace. To
establish a state of belligerency certain minimal conditions must
be met:
[F]irst, there must exist within the State an armed conffict of a
general (as distinguished from a purely local) character; secondly,
the insurgents must occupy and administer a substantial portion of
national territory; thirdly, they must conduct the hostilities in
accordance with the rules of war and through organized armed
forces acting under a responsible authority; fourthly, there must
exist circumstances which make it necessary for outside States to
define their attitude by means of recognition of belligerency.
Recognition of belligerency is in essence a declaration ascertaining
the existence of these conditions of fact.1
A classic example of a belligerent was the Confederate States of
America during the American Civil War.2 Rebellions, on the
* Professor of Law, New York University School of Law; Director, New
York University Center for International Studies.
** Visiting Lecturer, New School for Social Research; graduate student,
New York University School of Law. The authors gratefully acknowledge the
assistance of Gary Flack, student, New York University School of Law.
1 H. Lauterpacht, Recognition in International Law 176 (1947).
2 W. Bishop, International Law 339 (2d ed. 1962).
Imaged with the Permission of N.Y.U. Law Review](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/nylr45&div=49&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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