State Succession with Respect to Property
Especially Focussing on the Former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and its Successor States

by Angelika Pipal

Inhalt

HISTORY 4

Yugoslavia before the Civil War - What led to the Civil War? 4
After the Civil War 5

DEFINITION 6

State Succession 6
Public property 7
Change of Sovereignty 7

THE LAW OF STATE SUCCESSION 10

The Vienna Conventions 10
Succession to Treaties 12
The Problem with Property 13
The clean slate doctrine 14
Liability pro rata 14

EXAMPLES 16

The Case of the Czechoslovak Federation - Consensual Solution 16
The Case of the Soviet Union - Peaceful Succession with Conflicts on Redistribution 17
The case of Yugoslavia 18

LITERATURE: 21

History

Yugoslavia before the Civil War - What led to the Civil War?

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia consisted of six Republics ? Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia?Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia ? and two autonomous regions Kosovo and Vojvodina. The Federal Government was directed by a Presidential Council, or collective presidency. The chairmanship of which rotated among the heads of the republics and autonomous regions.

On September 27, 1990, the Slovenian parliament decided that the federal legislation would no longer be applied in Slovenia. In a referendum held in December 1990, 88.5 percent of the Slovenian voters voted for independence. At about the same time, the Croatian parliament had proclaimed the supremacy of its legislation over the federal law.

Croatia and Slovenia wanted a loose federation with less Serbian influence. Serbia wanted a tighter federation to preserve its centralized control . This is why the negotiations to achieve a loose federation of fully or semisovereign states failed.

Many influencial states, including the European Union and the United States, said they supported the maintaining of the territorial integrity of the federation. This strengthened Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian leader. And thus he thought that flexibility was not necessary in the negotiations, since independence for Croatia and Slovenia was not supported internationally. Instead of offering a looser federation, the central army declared martial law.
In May, the Federal Council failed to elect a Croat who under the constitution of the Federation was supposed to assume the federal presidency.

The Yugoslav Prime Minister warned Croatia and Slovenia that "the Federal Government will use all means available to stop the republics′ unilateral steps towards independence." Nevertheless, the two republics declared independence a day later (June 25, 1991).

On June 27, 1991, the armed forces of the central authorities attacked the provisional Slovenian militia. Slovenia proclaimed a "state of war" and appealed for international assistance. The European Union immediately involved itself in the crisis and sent a "troika" of EC Foreign Ministers (Italy, Luxembourg and Netherlands).

After the Civil War

The independence of Slovenia and Croatia (January 1992) and Bosnia?Herzegovina (April 1992) was recognized by the European Union and a number of other states. The EU expressed its willingness to recognize Macedonia as an independent state under a name acceptable to all parties, including Greece.

Soon thereafter the new republics of Slovenia, Bosnia?Herzegovina and Croatia were admitted as members of the United Nations. However, the claim of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) to automatically succeed to the membership of former Yugoslavia was denied. It was required to make a new application for admission because former Yugoslavia had ceased to exist.

Definition

State Succession

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