Succession of states in cases of separation of parts of a state and example of Yugoslavia

The succession of states, as one of the controversial issues in international law, has been one of the fundamental problems that states could never compromise in practice. There has been an agreement on the issues about neither conceptual scope nor framework of succession, which can be defined as entrance of the partial or whole territory of a state under the sovereignty of another state. That situation primarily and mainly results from the structure of international law. As known, unlike the municipal laws, in international law, considering interest based political operation of international law, the absence of a sovereign will binding upon all the actors and the similar regulations makes it difficult to reach an agreement especially in the issues of intense conflict of interest. The reason this aspect of international law about succession has been deeply distinguished, is no doubt is that the issue of succession has been intensively the interest based. Therefore, the termination of states, the main subject of international law, or any change in the features of formation of states bring along some certain serious problems and results. This situation arises from the broad scope of the succession of states which also includes some important issues such as international agreements, the property, debts, archives and nationalities of states. In order to secure uniformity on succession, the United Union adopted the `Vienna Convention on Succession of States in Respect of Treaties of 1978? and `Vienna Convention on Succession of States in Respect of State Property, Archives and Debts of 1983?. The first agreement dated 1978 is in force now yet the second one has not yet enter into force. The processing work on an agreement about nationality shows also that it has been tried to have compliance between states in putting the succession issue enforced within the scope of customary law in writing. In this work, the succession issue is discussed with respect to the aforementioned agreements and state practice and the succession issue of new states that has arisen from the dissolution of Yugoslavia is examined. The factors such as the multinational feature of Yugoslavia, the economic differences between territories, the spread of nationalism, the independence movement and minority issues provide a basis for the dissolution. With the independence movement starting in 1991, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is terminated. In this study, the succession issue becoming a current issue as a result of the dissolution, as well as the succession of new states, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro after announcing their freedom are discussed. Key Words: State, Succession, Yugoslavia, International Agreement.