Would Other Governments Recognize an Independent Texas?

Other governments have recognized Texas as a sovereign state before. The United States recognized the Republic of Texas on March 3, 1837, a year after its declaration of independence, when President Andrew Jackson nominated a minister to it, according to the State Department's Office of the Historian. France, the Netherlands and Britain later signed treaties with the Republic. Mexico never accepted it.

The Texas Nationalist Movement's answer to whether other governments would recognize an independent Texas today is yes. It argues that Texas would begin the process from a stronger position than almost any state that has won its independence in modern history.

A state exists before it is recognized

The standard most often cited is the 1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, which the United States signed and ratified. Its first article lists four qualifications for a state: "a permanent population," "a defined territory," "government" and the "capacity to enter into relations with the other states." Its third article settles the order of events: "The political existence of the state is independent of recognition by the other states."

That is the declaratory view of statehood. A state exists because it meets the criteria, and recognition is other governments acknowledging the fact and opening relations. TNM holds that Texas meets all four: a permanent population, a fixed border, a working constitutional government, and a capacity for relations with other states that the Republic proved when it signed treaties with France, the Netherlands and Britain. Article I, Section 10 of the United States Constitution restrains that capacity today by barring Texas from making treaties, and resuming independence lifts the restraint.

Recognition itself is extended one government at a time. In the United States the decision belongs to the President alone. The Supreme Court held in Zivotofsky v. Kerry in 2015 that "The President has the exclusive power to grant formal recognition to a foreign sovereign." The movement's plan calls for the diplomatic groundwork to begin before the vote, so that recognition follows the result quickly.

Washington's own record

The recognition that matters most is Washington's, and TNM argues that Washington's interests point toward granting it. The two economies share a long border and run on the same energy and supply chains. A negotiated, recognized separation keeps trade moving. Refusing to recognize a peaceful vote would disrupt Washington's own economy and leave it defying a decision made at the ballot box.

Washington has also taken a position on this kind of question before. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on February 17, 2008, and the United States recognized it the next day, according to the Office of the Historian. When the question reached the International Court of Justice, the United States filed a written statement in April 2009 defending the declaration, and in 2010 the court found that "general international law contains no applicable prohibition of declarations of independence."

The United Nations

A seat at the United Nations does not create a state. Switzerland governed itself for centuries and joined the organization on September 10, 2002. Membership is the formal welcome that follows statehood.

The procedure is set out in Article 4 of the UN Charter. Membership is open to "peace-loving states" that accept the Charter's obligations, and admission "will be effected by a decision of the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council." The General Assembly decides admissions by a two-thirds majority of the members present and voting.

The Security Council step is political. Any of its five permanent members, the United States among them, can block a recommendation, and TNM's published answers say so. The movement's position is that a United States that has recognized Texas has no reason to veto its admission and good reason to sponsor it, since a stable, friendly neighbor at the table serves Washington as well.

The admissions TNM points to came quickly. The United Nations had 51 members when it was founded in 1945 and has 193 today. Czechoslovakia dissolved on January 1, 1993, and the Czech Republic and Slovakia were admitted on January 19. Montenegro declared independence on June 3, 2006, and was admitted on June 28. South Sudan became independent on July 9, 2011, and took its seat five days later, as the 193rd member.

Treaties and holdouts

In TNM's view, recognition does not have to be unanimous to be real. A state functions once enough governments and international institutions deal with it as one, and the movement expects the rest to follow as trade and diplomacy accumulate.

Existing treaties would not vanish either. The 1978 Vienna Convention on Succession of States in respect of Treaties provides that when territory separates to form a new state, a treaty in force for the whole territory "continues in force in respect of each successor State so formed," unless the states concerned agree otherwise. Its Article 11 provides that a succession of states does not as such affect "a boundary established by a treaty." TNM reads that rule as carrying the Rio Grande boundary with Mexico forward intact.

In 1837 Texas waited a year for Washington's recognition while Mexico refused to accept the loss of Texas. TNM's position is that a Texas that leaves by a vote of its people, and settles the terms with Washington at a table, would not have to wait that long.