Contested statehood and international legal personality: the case of the Holy See

John R. Morss

Chapter 9 in Human Rights Accountability of Non-Universally Recognised States and State-Like Entities, 2026, pp 177-199 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: An extraordinary range of international legal status has been attributed over the years to the Holy See and/or to Vatican City, accompanied by widely varying accounts of the relationship between them. Alternatives range from the denial of any such status, the position maintained by this author, through several levels of status below that of statehood, to statehood of some kind and even to a putative level ‘above’ statehood. Many states have treated some form of this entity as if equivalent to or approximating to a state for some purposes. Different levels of international legal personhood convey different entitlements, from none to many, most notably respecting jurisdictional immunity in national courts. Implications follow for the protection of human rights. An indicative attempt is made here to schematise the chronically contested nature of this protean entity on the world stage by setting out representative attributions against a scale of international legal personhood.

Keywords: Holy See; Vatican City; Statehood; International legal personality; Jurisdictional immunities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035365128
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