Functionalist accounts of legitimacy have long been criticized for their weakness in explaining why states possessing all requisite functional features still seem lacking legitimacy in relation to territories unjustly annexed. While prominent critiques of functionalism based on collective autonomy or equal reciprocity, this project argues that this problematic aspect can be better explained with the doctrine of ex injuria jus non oritur, the application of which points to a distinct wrong that consists in whitewashing unjust territory acquisition. The analysis leads us to modify functionalism by incorporating a historical dimension, which requires assigning the ultimate power to rectify a state’s unjust presence to individual subjects.