The Decolonization of International Law: State Succession and the Law of Treaties »

Matthew Craven is Professor of International Law, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

The issue of State Succession continues to be a vital, and complex, focal point for public international lawyers. The formative period of decolonization marked, for many, the time when international law 'came of age', when the promises of the UN Charter would be realized in an international community of sovereign peoples. Throughout the 1990s a series of territorial adjustments placed succession once again at the centre of international legal practice, in new contexts that went beyond the traditional model of decolonization: the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, and the unifications of Germany and Yemen brought to light the continued difficulties and inconsistencies in the core issues within the law of succession.

Why have attempts to codify the practice of succession met with so little success? Why has succession remained so problematic a feature of international law? This book argues that the answers to these questions lie in the political backdrop of decolonization and self-determination, that the tensions and ambiguities that run throughout succession are understood by looking at the relationship between discourses on state succession, decolonization, and imperial ambition within the framework of international law.

Table of Cases     ix
Table of Treaties     xiii
Introduction     1
Critical Diagnostics     7
Introduction     7
The Themes of Succession     23
A Brief History     29
Succession, Identity, and Continuity     52
Three Notions of Territorial Sovereignty     61
Two Notions of Succession     64
Continuity and Succession     67
The Point of Differentiation     69
From Status to Relations     75
Bedjaoui, O'Connell, and the 'End' of Succession     80
Conclusions     90
Codification and Decolonization 1950-1974     93
The Move to Codification     94
Initial Steps: The International Law Commission Sub-committee     96
The International Law Association     105
A Change in Focus: The Waldock Reports     113
The Law of Treaties and Beyond     120
Devolution Agreements     122
Unilateral Declarations     128
New States     131
Treaties providing for Succession     132
A Right of Participation     134
The Legal Nexus     141
Semi-Sovereignty: Mandates,Trusteeships and Protectorates     147
Other Categories of Succession     155
Unions of States     157
The Dissolution of States     166
Dispositive Treaties     173
Boundary Treaties     176
Territorial Agreements     187
Final Moves: The Vienna Conference     194
Reception and Reflection     198
Conclusions     201
New Beginnings, New Ends     207
Introduction     207
Beyond Decolonization     213
The Perils of Formalism: Continuity, Personality, and Identity     216
Treaty Continuity and Automatic Succession     231
Functional Differentiation     244
Conclusions     256
Conclusions     259
Select Bibliography     268
Index     287