The problem of state succession on the attainment of independent statehood

Abstract

A brief study of the relevant terms is called for, both as such serves to define the ambit of our thesis and as it lays the necessary basis for future discussion. The term that lies at the very core of our thesis is 'State Succession'. We are here principally concerned with the problem of State Succession on the emergence of a new independent State, perhaps the most interesting and important fact of the wider State succession problem. An explanation of this term, therefore, forms not only an apt introduction, but a very useful and very basic one. The term, reminiscent as it is of Roman Law analogy, has been charged with begging the whole question; it presupposes a complete succession in the rights and duties of the predecessor State by the successor State. But this in not a strictly necessary interpretation; the term is used merely to signify a particular international situation giving rise to the possibility of an 'inheritance', of certain rights and obligations, by one State from another.