Part VI International Transactions, 19 Succession to Rights and Duties

Subject(s):

State succession — Federal states — State succession, state property and contracts — Jurisdiction of states, nationality principle

The territorial transformation of Europe in the aftermath of the collapse of communism (the unification of Germany, dissolution of the USSR, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia) prompted scholars to revisit the question of state succession, largely overlooked since the International Law Commission’s attempted codification coinciding with the end of decolonization. The significant number of recent state successions has resulted in an attempted re-engagement with the law of state succession in a different historical and political context, based on the accumulation of relatively consistent state practice over the past two decades. This chapter discusses the forms of territorial change, state succession and municipal legal relations, succession to treaties, succession to responsibility, and membership of international organizations.