State Succession

Sociology | Mercantile Law | International Law | International Relations

Professor D. P. Connell remarks; “Law of State Succession from the mid of twentieth century has reached a position of crisis.” Under the light of this statement, if we compare past and present position of world order; it won’t be wrong to say that, state succession has been a volatile subject of international law.

STATE SUCCESSION CONVENTION
It was 1978 when for the first time, world states met at Vienna in order to draft and adopt the rules regularizing the State Succession. The Vienna Convention on State Succession was perhaps impetus of rapid decolonization and emergence of new states along with other factors.

Meaning
According to Oxford English Dictionary; ‘Succession is in which one follows after the other.’

Definition
Oppenheim defines; “State Succession is when one or more states or international persons take the place of another state or international person as a result of certain changes in the latter’s conditions.”

BASIS OF STATE SUCCESSION
Roman Law by Grotius which exhibited the succession of property of one person to another person after the former’s death actually incorporated this practice in international law as well. Death of a state will ultimately facilitate the succession of another state.