1895年臺灣民主國及相關國際法問題

Abstract

1894年大清帝國與日本國間甲午戰爭後戰敗，1895年簽定《馬關條約》割讓臺灣澎湖，臺灣官民為求自保成立臺灣民主國抗日，仍在抵抗數月後被消滅。臺灣民主國究竟是否為一國家往往引起爭論，本文以時際法的概念觀察當時國際法內容，再從現代國際法的角度，以「國家屬性」(statehood)檢驗之，並認為臺灣民主國具有獨立性，除了形式上宣布獨立符合形式獨立性外，也以中國外交關係朝貢體制來解釋對大清帝國輸誠之文字，而認為實質上未受外國干涉。然而臺灣民主國之政府之有效性(effectiveness)不足，因此為一「形成中國家」(States in Statu nascendi)，若能建立其政府統治之有效性，則國家屬性將溯及未被普遍承認為國家的時期。 這樣的形成中國家由於其國家屬性尚有爭議，故而對其而言承認的證據效力較大，若無任何一國承認，則對於其並非國家的否定效力會較強，此時各國的不承認可能構成了臺灣民主國國家屬性的否定。然以宣示說而言，臺灣民主國為事實上之存在，因此臺灣民主國此一形成中國家的國際法人格仍可能存在，僅是因無任何一國承認，無法證明其國際法人格的存在。

In 1894, following the First Sino-Japanese War, Qing Empire ceded Taiwan and Penghu to Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki. To prevent the governance of Japenese, Taiwan officials and gentry established the Republic of Formosa. After a few months of resistance the Republic still collapsed. Whether the Republic of Formosa a country is controversial, this article tried to use the concept of intertemporal law to observe the international law of that time and examed the statehood of the Republic in modern international law. This article is in the view that the government of Republic of Formosa had independence, because the declaration of independence in accordance with formal independence and the tributary system explaned the words honored the Qing Empire thus meet the requirements of actual independence. But the effectiveness of government of the Republic of Formosa seemed insufficient, it may be in the period of States in Statu nascendi. Statehood in States in Statu nascendi is not firmly established, in this kind of period recognition can be a powerful evidence of statehood, the non-recognition could even negate it. But according to the declaratory theory the Republic of Formosa was exist in fact, thus the international person of the Republic of Formosa might exist as well, just couldn’t proved by other contrys’ recognition.