KEYWORDS: succession of states; state creation/disappearance; (international) recognition of a new state; state responsibility; international criminal law; International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia; International Criminal Court; individual liability for international crimes.
SUMMARY:
Within the former project, the principal investigator has recently finished a manuscript of the book entitled: Croatian State in the International Community – Historical Development of its International Legal Personality, numbering 403 pages. Translations into Croatian of some documents, which were his task, will be published in it. In his capacity as member of Croatian delegation, he took an active part in the negotiations that resulted in signature of the Agreement on Succession Issues in June 2001 in Vienna. Before its entry into force, this Agreement is subject to ratification by all the contracting parties. It has settled some open questions, such as the one of ”critical dates”.
The conclusion of the Agreement is in a way a conclusive step in the emergence of the international legal personality of Croatia and other successor states of the former SFRY. In the process of building up of that personality, a number of other theoretical and practical issues are still to be resolved, especially regarding the implementation of the said Agreement. The principal investigator is one of the members from Croatia in the Standing Joint Committee, in which the negotiations will continue. The matter is of the apportionment of the immovable and movable state properties of the Yugoslav Federation inside it and abroad, of archives, pensions, and other acquired rights of its former citizens. The main problem still to be settled is the considerable amount of the debt of the Ljubljanska banka to the holders of saving accounts outside Slovenia.
The matter is of the right to possession as one of human rights. Some of these practical issues seek a theoretical analysis, as well as the research of the former practice of the states and case law, which is the aim of this project. The determination of the land and maritime frontiers of Croatia with neighbouring states falls in the framework of this project. The principal investigator will however continue his research of this particular problem within his usual duties at the Adriatic Institute, and in his capacity of the investigator of the project ”Croatian Maritime Legislation and the International Standards”. There are furthermore some topics that generate fervent political debates, because of the lack of objective consideration in all their aspects, for instance the intervention of the Croatian Army in 1993 in the internal conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina. There is also the cooperation of Croatia with the International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague.
Project financed by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia.
