Book II Diplomatic and Consular Relations, 8 The Appointment and Functions of Consuls

Subject(s):

Consular relations — Consulates — Diplomatic missions — Diplomatic relations — Diplomatic privileges — Sovereignty — Governments

This chapter discusses the appointment and functions of consuls. Consuls have over recent decades become closely assimilated to diplomats in the manner of their appointment and in many of the functions they perform, though not in the methods whereby they carry out these functions. The origins and history of consuls and consular posts are however quite distinct from those of diplomats and diplomatic missions. In modern practice, consuls are appointed by the government of a State to protect the practical, legal, and commercial interests of its own nationals in another State. Their contacts for this purpose with the host State are with regional, local, or police authorities rather than with the ministry of foreign affairs or other departments of central government.