Governments in Exile

Governments in Exile

Embracing mainstream international law, this section on governments in exile explores the context, history and effect of the area of the law covered here.

“A government-in-exile consists of an individual or a group of individuals residing in a foreign State who: (1) claims supreme authority over either a State in the sense of international law which is still under the control of another national or foreign authority or a State to be created on the territory of another State in anticipation of coming political events, (2) is recognized as such at least by the State in which it resides, notwithstanding its lack of effective control over its home State and, (3) is organized to perform and actually performs some acts of State on behalf of the home State or the State to be created. A government-in-exile may consist of an individual or a group of individuals according to the constitutional framework of the State whose supreme authority it claims. The residence on foreign territory of governments-in-exile distinguishes them from local de facto regimes or insurgents, both of which act on their own territory, if only a small part of it.2 (1)

Resources

Notes and References

1. Encyclopedia of Disputes Installment, 1987

Further Reading

• The entry “governments in exile” in the Parry and Grant Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law (currently, the Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law, 2009), Oxford University Press