Succession of states
Cases like this occur when, for example, one state is annexed or conquered by another and ceases to exist even in nominal form (i.e., not even a "government in exile" is established).
Consequent upon the acquisition of international legal personality, the difficult matter of succession to treaty rights and obligations arises.
[4] Succession may refer to the transfer of rights, obligations, or property from a previously well-established predecessor state to its successor state, and can include overseas assets such as diplomatic missions, foreign-exchange reserves, and museum artifacts; and participation in treaties in force at the date of succession or international organizations.
[5] In their application to the acquisition of independence, distinctions should be drawn between different cases though the line of demarcation is not always clear:[6] There are several recent examples where a succession of states, as described above, has not been entirely adhered to.
At the start of the Cold War the PRC was recognized by few states; the ROC continued to represent "China" in the United Nations and hold the permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
In addition to the Chinese mainland, the ROC also claims borderlands unclaimed by the PRC, most notably Outer Mongolia.
In Chinese history, periods of prolonged political division and dynastic transition saw the existence of more than one claimant to "China" at the same time.
[14] Multiple ephemeral regimes also existed during this period, including the Shun and Xi dynasties on mainland China, and the Ming loyalist Kingdom of Tungning on Taiwan.
South Korea resumed membership to international organizations such as the Universal Postal Union and re-affirmed that pre-1910 treaties were still in force.
In International Law, the situation is analogous to the separation of the Irish Free State from Britain, and Belgium from the Netherlands.
In these cases the portion which separated was considered a new State, and the remaining portion continued as an existing State with all the rights and duties which it had before.The Soviet Union (USSR) dissolved in 1991, which together with its Ukrainian SSR and Byelorussian SSR as separate United Nations members, co-founded the United Nations in 1945.
[19][20] In a letter dated 24 December 1991, the Russian President Boris Yeltsin informed the Secretary-General that the membership of the USSR in the Security Council and all other United Nations organs was being continued by the Russian Federation with the support of the nine member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
An important tenet of the modern states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania is that their incorporation into the Soviet Union from 1940 to 1991 constituted an illegal occupation.
As a consequence, the Baltic states were able to simply re-establish diplomatic relations with countries, re-affirm pre-1940 treaties still in force, and resume membership in international organizations.
[26] A similar situation applies to the Caucasus countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, which claimed continuity of the pre-1921 republics before being conquered by the Red Army as well as Ukraine, which as mentioned above, is the de facto successor to the Ukrainian People's Republic that was founded in 1917 before its Sovietization in 1919 (see Soviet–Ukrainian War).
[27] The agreement was initially prevented by the insistence of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia that it was the exclusive legal and political continuation of Socialist Yugoslavia as well as the owner of all state property owned by the earlier socialist federal government, and that it was willing to renounce a part of it only as an act of goodwill.
[27] The key determined participation of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia with 36.52%, Croatia with 28.49%, Slovenia 16.39%, Bosnia and Herzegovina with 13.20% and Macedonia with 5.20%.
[27] An agreement was also reached on gold and other reserves at the Bank for International Settlements, but the final conclusion was postponed by the beginning of the Kosovo War.
