This study discusses the succession of states to treaties and other obligations or rights, seeking answers to the question Does a new state succeed to its predecessor's international rights and duties, and if so, to what extent?

The renewed interest in matters of state succession which accompanied the dissolution of three multinational, socialist states in post-communist Europe inspired the preparation of this book. The book aims to provide both practical lessons of individual countries being directly involved in matters of state succession, and more theoretical contributions to expand the body of conceptual literature in this area. Its contributions address a wide variety of matters, ranging from problems associated with the recognition of states, issues of state succession with respect to international treaties and membership in international organizations, through specific issues such as citizenship, external debts and archives. The diversity of contributions therefore provides a relatively complete survey of matters pertaining to succession of states, especially those relating to the legal, economic and financial aspects. While some authors address universal questions of state succession or the issue of membership in international organizations, most contributions focus on issue-specific problems involving state succession to three Central and Eastern European states and, in particular, the break-up of the SFRY. The contributors are policy-makers, academic lawyers and economists actively involved in succession of states issues, either in their respective countries or in various international fora. The majority of contributions collected in this book are updated and revised versions of articles published in the December 1996 issue of "Development and International Cooperation,"

First published in 1956, this book presents an account regarding the legal principles governing the consequences of changes of sovereignty, focusing particularly on British practice during the preceding 150 years. The legal principles governing British practice are compared with those of other states in order to record the main points of doctrinal agreement or divergence.

State Succession and Commercial Obligations sets out to answer once and for all the age-old question: Do commercial obligations survive state succession? Tai-Heng Cheng accomplishes this goal via careful analyses of efforts by the United Nations to codify the law of state succession, as well as of recent state successions involving East Timor, Hong Kong, Macau, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union. The insightful text identifies a common thread running through these seemingly disparate events. Because of globalization and our interdependence, transnational decision-makers have collectively shaped international law to protect the international infrastructure from being disrupted by state succession and to protect entities from being debilitated by post-succession obligations. State Succession and Commercial Obligations makes another major breakthrough by showing that the policy considerations and decision-making processes are similar in both state and government successions. Unlike prior theories that were bound by technical distinctions between state and government succession, this book’s approach helps decision-makers bring order to both state and government successions that continue to be problematic today, such as the “regime changes” in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo. State Succession and Commercial Obligations is the only major treatise in fifty years to appraise the global development of the law of state succession and commercial obligations. This treatise is indispensable to legal scholars seeking to understand contemporary international law, judges and arbitrators adjudicating succession disputes, and transactional and trial lawyers representing financial institutions, corporations and states when succession is imminent or has occurred. Because this book distills complex legal concepts into elegant ideas, it is also fascinating reading for a general audience that has an interest in global affairs and the transformative successions since the end of the Cold War. Published under the Transnational Publishers imprint.