Based on the last part of Video Lecture No.

1 which is the “Case Study” included in Module 1,

will you consider New Manila as a State? Explain and justify your answers based on your
understanding of the knowledge of the 4 Elements of the State.

James Garner (1955) defined state as “a community of persons more or less numerous,
permanently occupying a definite portion of a territory, independent or nearly so of external
control and possessing an organized government to which the great body of inhabitants render
habitual obedience.” A state can never come into being unless it possesses these four essential
elements: population, territory, government, and sovereignty. If a “state” lacks any one of these,
it is not considered a state, so it must always possess all four.
In the case of the established New Manila in the Pacific Ocean, whether it is a state or
not, I believe that it cannot be considered a state because the New Manila did not meet all the
requisites of a state that were mentioned by Dr. Garner.
Population is the most fundamental physical requirement for the existence of states, as it
cannot exist without people. As stated previously, a state is "a community of more or less
numerous persons," therefore, state is an institution or community of the state's inhabitants.
According to the article that was published by Mondal (2014), Aristotle stated that the general
principle of the number of people living in a particular area should neither be too large nor too
small. It should be large enough to be self-sufficient, but small enough to be effectively
governed. In the New Manila, there are a total of 3,000 people on board the cruise ship,
including 2,000 people with various professions and thousands of crew members who decided to
live permanently and establish a "state" on unclaimed land in the Pacific Ocean. Since there are
people living in their area and there is no definite limit for the size of population essential for a
state, the New Manila satisfied the first requirement to be considered as state.
The second essential element - “permanently occupying a definite portion of a territory.”
Without fixed territory, there cannot be a state. It is not enough to simply have a population in
order to form a state; there must also be a fixed geographical territory for the population to
inhabit. Similar to the situation with the population, there is no limit that is set for the territory of
a state. In addition, the territory of a state, according to Ghai (2014), includes not only the land
domain over which the jurisdiction of the state extends, but also rivers and lakes, the sea, and the
air space above it. Therefore, a state cannot exist exclusively in the air or on the water. As a
result, the New Manila did not meet the second requirement to be considered a state, as it is
anchored on top of a coral formation in the Pacific Ocean.
The third element that must be considered is for the people to have an “independent or
nearly so of external control and possessing an organized government.” A people occupying a
specific territory cannot form a state unless they are politically organized, or have a government.
People can organize their government by choosing their leaders and one way to choose their
leaders is by having elections. Furthermore, the government must be free from the foreign
control, which means that neither other governments nor other states may intervene with the
affairs of the government that was established by the people, because if there is intervention or if
that government is under the influence of a more powerful government or state, then the state
loses its credibility as a state and ceases to exist. In the case of New Manila, they organized their
government by electing their Captain and First Mate as President and Vice President,
respectively. They are also independent of external or foreign control. These indicates that New
Manila fulfilled the requirement for the third element of a state.
Lastly, the most exclusive and most essential element of state – “the great body of
inhabitants render habitual obedience. This element is also known as sovereignty, which is the
supreme power of the state to command and compel the people to obey its will. There can be no
state without sovereignty. There are two aspects of sovereignty: internal and external. Internal
sovereignty refers to the state's power to establish its supremacy over all individuals under its
jurisdiction. It can compel its people to obey its laws and commands, whereas external
sovereignty means the state is free from other states' control. It also refers to a state's relations
with other sovereign states. Although New Manila is independent and free of other foreign
control, it cannot be said that it has complete sovereignty. Even though their government
deployed emissaries to Pacific neighbors such as Tonga, Kiribati, Tahiti, Fiji Islands, Australia,
New Zealand, Hawaii, and the Philippines to establish diplomatic relations on behalf of the
newly established state, it is not stated in the Case Study that their neighbors recognized them as
a state. According to Bilinski (2021), a state possesses external sovereignty if other states
recognize its independence. When a state is recognized by another state, it means that the
recognizing state agrees that the other has the powers of a statehood. Because there is no
recognition of any other state, New Manila does not have complete sovereign power. Thus, it
was unable to fulfill the requirements of the last and most essential element of the state.
In summary, the previous paragraph provided an explanation of each of the four primary
elements that make up a state. A state becomes a state only when all of these criteria are met.
New Manila fulfilled the requirements for the elements of population and government, but it did
not fulfill the elements of territory and sovereignty. With all of the evidence I've presented, I can
assert that New Manila is not a state.

References:

Bilinski, A. (2021, October 11). What is Sovereignty? Study.

https://study.com/learn/lesson/what-is-a-sovereign-nation.html

Garner, J. (1955). Political science and government. World Press Calcutta.

Ghai, K. K. (2014, May 17). State: Elements and Necessity of the State. Your Article Library.
https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/essay/politics-essay/state-elements-and-necessity-of-
the-state/40323

Mondal, P. (2014, May 20). Aristotle Theory of Origin of State: Concept, Elements and
Necessary Conditions. Your Article Library. https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/essay/
aristotle-theory-of-origin-of-state-concept-elements-and-necessary-conditions/40128