Legal recognition of a

status Status (Latin plural: ''statūs''), is a state, condition, or situation, and may refer to: * Status (law) ** City status ** Legal status, in law ** Political status, in international law ** Small entity status, in patent law ** Status conference ...

fact A fact is a datum about one or more aspects of a circumstance, which, if accepted as true and proven true, allows a logical conclusion to be reached on a true–false evaluation. Standard reference works are often used to check facts. Scient ...

in a

jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels. Jur ...

is formal acknowledgement of it as being true, valid,

legal Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

, or worthy of consideration, and may involve approval or the granting of

rights Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical the ...

. For example, a

nation A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective identity of a group of people understood as defined by those ...

territory A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...

may require a person to hold a

professional qualification Professional certification, trade certification, or professional designation, often called simply ''certification'' or ''qualification'', is a designation earned by a person to assure qualification to perform a job or task. Not all certifications ...

to practice an

occupation Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment *Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces *Military occupation, th ...

, such as

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

. While any establishment may grant a qualification, only ''recognised'' qualifications from ''recognised'' establishments entitle the holder to practice the restricted occupation. Qualifications from another jurisdiction may or may not be recognised. This way, the state controls and regulates access; for example, physicians of unknown competence may not practice, and it may be desired to protect employment of local people. Another example is that any person can undergo a form of

marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...

with anyone or anything, and claim to be married. However, a marriage which is recognised affords the participant certain rights and obligations, e.g., possible reduction in

taxes A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or ...

, obligation not to abandon the spouse, etc. Hypothetically, a person who claims to be married to a horse, has no rights and no obligations, and is subject to legal sanctions for any attempt to practice what would be conjugal rights if a marriage was recognised. In the early twenty-first century, there was much controversy about recognising marriages between couples of the same sex. Article 16 of

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is a multilateral treaty that commits nations to respect the civil and political rights of individuals, including the right to life, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedo ...

requires right to be recognition everywhere as a person before the law. The derogation from this is prohibited, even in time of public

emergency An emergency is an urgent, unexpected, and usually dangerous situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment and requires immediate action. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening ...

which threaten the life of the nation is officially proclaimed. Legal recognition varies between jurisdictions. A person may be recognised as a

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

, and to have been married and

divorced Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...

in one jurisdiction; upon moving to another jurisdiction, some or all of these issues may not be recognised. The new jurisdiction, while not recognising the medical qualification as such, may allow it to be used to give the right to take a short qualifying course leading to a recognised qualification, or may disregard it entirely.

Diplomatic recognition Diplomatic recognition in international law is a unilateral declarative political act of a state that acknowledges an act or status of another state or government in control of a state (may be also a recognized state). Recognition can be accorde ...

is a similar concept, whereby one state acknowledges the existence as an entity of another.

References

See also