united-states united-kingdom international history
Do countries which ceased to exist de facto continue to &quot;exist&quot; de jure in some jurisidictions?
<p>I.e. Russian Empire, which was obviously recognized by the UK and the US, ceased to exist de facto due to a revolution. It was de facto succesed by the USSR, but the USSR wasn't a legal succesor. After a while since the creation of the Soviet union, it got recognized by the UK and the US, but did that mean that the UK and the US &quot;unrecognized&quot; Russian Empire?</p>
<p>Russian Empire is not the only example, there were many states that were internationally recognized but ceased to exist either due to a revolution or due to being conquered.</p>
<p>It seems that if such states indeed do de jure &quot;exist&quot;, there are some legal consequences, i.e. the current successor of the Russian throne (whoever that might be) has diplomatic immunity while being in the US or in the UK (if I understand correctly how it works).</p>
<p><strong>P.s.</strong> this question is mostly about the US and the UK jurisdictions because these are two notable long withstanding jurisdictions that witnessed falls of many states, but answers for other jurisdictions are also welcomed.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> the answers so far seem to target cases when recognition and recognition withdrawal were explicit, but I'm talking about cases where no explicit recognition (withdrawal) happened (like in the Russian Empire example above).</p>

<p>For one current example, as of November 2022, the United States <a href="https://www.state.gov/independent-states-in-the-world/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">recognizes</a> the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.  This state <em>de facto</em> ceased to exist in August 2021, when the Taliban seized power and reinstated the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.</p>

<p>You will have to look at this case-by-case, not in general.</p>
<p>In 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union occupied Poland. A <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_government-in-exile" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Polish government-in-exile</a> was extablished first in France and then in the UK. This was recognized by the Western allies. After Germany and the Soviet Union fell out, the Soviets grudingly cooperated with this government in exile, while they organized an alternative, communist-led one which took over when the Red Army conquered Poland. The US and UK withdrew recognition of the London-based government-in-exile in 1945, and so did most but not all other countries.</p>
<p>At the end of most open hostilites of the Chinese civil war, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan" rel="nofollow noreferrer">internationally recognized government</a> held only a (relatively) tiny island. For many years, the Western powers did not recognize the mainland government as the legitimate representative of China. Over several decades, they moved to an ambiguous state where the People's Republic of China is fully recognized, the Republic of China is <strong>not</strong> fully unrecognized, and the thorny issues are left to a future date.</p>

<h2><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Yes</a></h2>
<p>The Bolsheviks became the de facto rulers of the Tsarist Empire in November 1917 although it took until the end of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Civil_War" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Russian Civil War</a> in June 1923 for them to gain complete control of the country. Until 16 November 1933, the <a href="https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/id/86555.htm#:%7E:text=On%20November%2016%2C%201933%2C%20President,for%20Foreign%20Affairs%2C%20Maxim%20Litvinov." rel="nofollow noreferrer">United States</a> maintained that the legal government over the area controlled by the Soviet Union was the deposed Tsarist government. In contrast, the United Kingdom recognised the Soviet government as legitimate in February 1924.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The dominant customary international law standard of statehood is the declarative theory of statehood, which was codified by the Montevideo Convention of 1933. The Convention defines the state as a person of international law if it &quot;possess[es] the following qualifications: (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) a capacity to enter into relations with the other states&quot; so long as it was not &quot;obtained by force whether this consists in the employment of arms, in threatening diplomatic representations, or in any other effective coercive measure&quot;.</p>
<p>Debate exists on the degree to which recognition should be included as a criterion of statehood. The declarative theory of statehood argues that statehood is purely objective and recognition of a state by other states is irrelevant. On the other end of the spectrum, the constitutive theory of statehood defines a state as a person under international law only if it is recognised as sovereign by other states.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Recognition of a country or its legitimate government is a matter for other countries. The existence of a country or its de facto government is a matter of practicality - usually of the boots-on-the-ground type.</p>
<p>At present, there are 206 entities in the world that meet the declarative threshold. 203 of these are recognised by at least one UN-member state (most are recognised by all), 2 are recognised only by non-UN member states (Artsakh &amp; Transnistria), and 1 is recognised by nobody (Somaliland). Also, at this time, no one has recognised the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.</p>
