State Components: People, Territory, and Sovereignty

Core Elements of a State

The territory consists mainly of three elements:

• People
• Land
• Land Law or Power

The People as a State Component

The People, as a component of the state, refers to the Electoral Village as a whole—those who can exercise the right to vote. Subjects bound to the state by a political and legal bond are linked by Nationality, making them subject to the decisions of that state's legal system.

Sovereignty Defined

Sovereignty is the inherent right of every state to make its own decisions.

Territorial Theories

Uti Possidetis Juris Theory

"What was, is"—this principle holds that I possess that of which I have legal title. When independent American states, such as Venezuela, were created, each state was established within a given territory identical to the territory it held previously. What existed before still holds.

Uti Possidetis Facto Theory

This refers to possession in fact; that which one can effectively dominate and control through power.

Acquisition and Loss of Nationality

Nationality is acquired according to the requirements stipulated by the constitution.

One can only lose acquired nationality, never original nationality. Therefore, Venezuelan-born nationals cannot lose their nationality under any circumstances.

Citizenship obtained by naturalization can be lost through acts considered threatening to the country's sovereignty or treason, among others. This loss requires a court decision based on law.

Relationship Between People, Land, and State

A village is a group of people generally situated in a given territory. When the people inhabiting a territory organize, they acquire a sense of Nation, a sense of fatherland. Nation and people are sociological and spiritual concepts, not strictly legal ones.

A Nation exists where people share unity of purpose and objectives, the same language, history, folklore, music, customs, and traditions. This shared identity allows the people to become a Nation. Following Mancini's principle of nationalities, this Nation has the right to become a state. This illustrates the relationship: the people unite as the nation, and the nation organizes itself legally and politically in the form of a state.