Yugoslavia's internal borders as international borders: A question of appropriateness

East European Quarterly

Volumn 33, Issue 2, 1999, Pages 137-155

  Radan, Peter ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN SYDNEY   (Australia)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0041756915     PISSN: 00128449     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (101)

1. "Guidelines on Recognition" in Snezana Trifunovska, Yugoslavia Through Documents, From its Creation to Its Dissolution (Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1994), pp. 431-432.
2. Opinion No. 2 of the Arbitration Commission of the Peace Conference on Yugoslavia, 31 (1992), International Legal Materials 1497;
3. Opinion No. 3 of the Peace Conference on Yugoslavia, 31 (1992), International Legal Materials 1499.
4. "Declaration on Yugoslavia" in Trifunovska, Opinion No. 3 of the Peace Conference on Yugoslavia, op. cit., pp. 333-334.
5. Critics include Steven R. Ratner, "Drawing a Better Line: Uti Possidetis and the Borders of New States," American Journal of International Law, 90 (1996): 590-624;
6. Peter Radan, "The Badinter Arbitration Commission and the Partition of Yugoslavia," Nationalities Papers, 25 (1997): 537-557.
7. Supporters include Alain Pellet, "The Opinions of the Badinter Arbitration Committee, A Second Breath for the Self-Determination of Peoples," European Journal of International Law, 3 (1992): 178-181;
8. Malcolm N. Shaw, "Peoples, Territorialism and Boundaries," European Journal of International Law, 8 (1997): 478-507.
9. For a brief account of Yugoslavia's border disputes with Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Italy see Toma Milenkovic, "Drzavne granice Kraljevine Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca," Istorija 20. Veka (1992), God. X, Broj 1-2, 9-25.
10. On the Yugoslav-Hungarian border and demarcation pursuant to the Treaty of Trianon of 4 June 1920, see D. Cree, "Yugoslav-Hungarian Boundary Commission," Geographical Journal, 65 (1925): 89-112;
11. Bogumil Hrabak, "Ustanovljavanje Jugoslovenske granice u Baranji 1919-1920. godine," Istorija 20. Veka (1992), God. X, Broj 1-2, 51-60.
12. On the Yugoslav-Romanian border and demarcation see Eugene Boia, Romania's Diplomatic Relations With Yugoslavia in the Interwar Period, 1919-1941 (Boulder: East European Monographs, 1993), pp. 44-57.
13. On the Yugoslav-Albanian border see Zivko Avramovski, "Granice Kraljevine SHS s Albanijom," Istorija 20. Veka (1992), God. X, Broj 1-2, 35-49.
14. 18 League of Nations Treaty Series, 388-412. On the post-World War I Istrian peninsula dispute, see A.E. Moodie, The Italo-Yugoslav Boundary, A Study in Political Geography (Liverpool: George Philip & Son Ltd., 1945);
15. John Edward van Vliet, Wilsonian National Self-Determination and State Legitimacy in the Yugoslav Lands, unpublished Masters of Arts thesis, University of Waterloo, 1992, pp. 63-69, 77-91.
16. For detailed accounts of the post-World War II Istrian peninsula dispute, see Bogdan C. Novak, Trieste 1941-1954, The Ethnic, Political, and Ideological Struggle (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970);
17. Robert G. Rabel, Between East and West, Trieste, the United States and the Cold War 1941-1954 (Durham: Duke University Press, 1988);
18. Leonard Unger and Kristina Segulja, The Trieste Negotiations (Washington: The Johns Hopkins Foreign Policy Institute, 1990).
19. "Uredba o podeli zemlje na oblasti," 26. April 1922, in Branko Petranovic and Momcilo Zecevic, eds., Jugoslovenski federalizam, Ideje i Stvarnost, Tematska zbirka Dokumenata, Prvi tom, 1914-1943 (Belgrade: Prosveta, 1987), pp. 192-195.
20. The 1921 Constitution anticipated that the National Assembly was to pass legislation establishing the oblasti within six months. If such a law was not passed then the territorial division was to be by ministerial decree: Petranovic and Zecevic, Jugoslovenski federalizam, Prvi tom, pp. 194.
21. This was reflected in the provision, common to both the 1921 and 1931 Yugoslav Constitutions, which stipulated that the official language of the state was "Serbo-Croato-Slovenian" (Article 3 in both Constitutions).
22. Slobodan Jovanovic, Ustavno Pravo Kraljevine Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca (Belgrade: Sluzbeni List SRJ, 1995), pp. 50-51.
23. Djordje Stankovic, "Administrativna podela Kraljevine SHS" Istorijski glasnik (1981), Broj. 1-2, 33-46 at 35-37.
24. Borivoje Z. Milojevic, "The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, Administrative Divisions in Relation to Natural Regions," Geographical Review, 15 (1925): 70-83 at 82.
25. Ivo Banac, The National Question in Yugoslavia, Origins, History, Politics (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984), pp. 375-376.
26. Milojevic, The National Question in Yugoslavia, Origins, History, Politics (op. cit., p. 82.
27. Milojevic, The National Question in Yugoslavia, Origins, History, Politics (at 82-83, expressed the view that oblast boundaries were generally determined with regard to political and religious factors, but with insufficient attention being given to geographic and economic factors.
28. Stankovic, The National Question in Yugoslavia, Origins, History, Politics (op. cit., p. 46.
29. Branislav Gligorijevic, "Unutrasnje (administrativne) granice Jugoslavije izmedju dva svetska rata 1918-1941," Istorija 20. Veka (1992), God. X, Broj 1-2, 27-34, at 28.
30. "Zakon o nazivu i podeli Kraljevine na upravna podrucja," Article 2, 3. oktobra 1929, in Petranovic and Zecevic, Jugoslovenski federalizam, Tom prvi, p. 303
31. Gligorijevic, Jugoslovenski federalizam, Tom prvi, op. cit., p. 32.
32. Anonymous, "Administrative Divisions of Jugoslavia," Geographical Review, 20 (1930): 508-509;
33. Francine Friedman, The Bosnian Muslims, Denial of a Nation (Boulder: Westview Press, 1996), p. 101.
34. Gligorijevic, The Bosnian Muslims, Denial of a Nation (op. cit., p. 32.
35. Bruce E. Bigelow, The Yugoslav Radical Union, A Failing Attempt at National Integration in Yugoslavia 1935-1941, unpublished Doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago, 1972, p. 78.
36. The text of the Sporazum is reproduced in Petranovic and Zecevic, Jugoslovenski federalizam, Prvi tom, pp. 508-510.
37. An English translation is produced in Dana M. Mangham, "Elusive Agreement": The Sporazum of 1939 and the Serb-Croat Dispute in the Context of the European Crisis, unpublished Master of Arts thesis, Rice University, 1992, pp. 170-174.
38. Gligorijevic, "Elusive Agreement": The Sporazum of 1939 and the Serb-Croat Dispute in the Context of the European Crisis, op. cit., p. 33.
39. A. Collins Jenko, An Evolution of the Politics of Fragmentation: A Case Study of Slovenes in Yugoslavia, unpublished Doctoral dissertation, Boston University, 1984, p. 257.
40. Mangham, An Evolution of the Politics of Fragmentation: A Case Study of Slovenes in Yugoslavia, op. cit., pp. 113-114.
41. George Franz Vrbanic, The Failure to Save the First Yugoslavia: The Serbo-Croatian Sporazum of 1939 (Chicago: Ziral, 1991), pp. 92-94.
42. See "Nacrt uredbe o organizaciji srpske zemlje" in Petranovic and Zecevic, Jugoslovenski federalizam, Prvi tom, pp. 569-570.
43. Gligorijevic, Jugoslovenski federalizam, Prvi tom, op. cit., p. 33.
44. Mira Radojevic, "Sporazum Cevtkovic-Macek i pitanje razgranicenja u Sremu," Istorija 20. Veka (1992), God. X, Broj 1-2, 61-72.
45. Mangham, Istorija 20. Veka (op. cit., pp. 117-118.
46. The Slavic Muslims only achieved the status of a constituent nation in the early 1970s: Zachary T. Irwin, "The Islamic Revival and the Muslims of Bosnia-Hercegovina," East European Quarterly, 17 (1983): 437-458, at 442-446.
47. "Odluka Drugog zasedanja Antifasistickog Vijeca narodnog oslobodjenja Jugoslavije o izgradnji Jugoslavije na federativnom principu," 29. novembar 1943, in Petranovic and Zecevic, Jugoslovenski federalizam, Prvi tom, pp. 800-801.
48. An English translation is found in Fabijan Trgo, ed., The National Liberation War and Revolution in Yugoslavia (1941-1945), Selected Documents (Belgrade: Military History Institute of the Yugoslav People's Army, 1982), pp. 585-586.
49. Bogdan Lekic, "Administrativne granice u Jugoslaviji posle Drugog Svetskog Rata," Istorija 20. Veka (1992), God. X, Broj 1-2, 145-162 at 145.
50. For a detailed analysis of the various Serb responses to the Sporazum see Bigelow, Istorija 20. Veka (op. cit., pp. 436-471.
51. Frits W. Hondius, The Yugoslav Community of Nations (The Hague: Mouton, 1968), p. 139, fn. 271.
52. Quoted in Kosta Cavoski, Half a Century of Distorted Constitutionality in Yugoslavia (Belgrade: Center for Serbian Studies, 1997), p. 7.
53. Boban argues that at the second congress of AVNOJ it was understood, although not explicitly stated, that republic borders would be set according to earlier, essentially historic, borders: Ljubo Boban, Hrvatske granice od 1918. do 1992. godine (Zagreb: Skolska Knjiga, 1992), p. 52.
54. Janko Pleterski, Nacije-Jugoslavija-revolucija (Belgrade: Izdavacki Centar Komunist, 1985), p. 463.
55. Dennison Rusinow, "Yugoslavia's Disintegration and the Ottoman Past" in L. Carl Brown, ed., Imperial Legacy, The Ottoman Imprint on the Balkans and the Middle East (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), pp. 45-99 at 95-96.
56. Macedonian nationalists also claimed territory within Greece and Bulgaria as being Macedonian.
57. Ljubodrag Dimic, "Nekoliko dokumenata o privremenoj administrativnoj granici izmedju jugoslovenskih republika Srbije i Hrvatske" Istorija 20. Veka (1992), God. X, Broj 1-2, 231-246;
58. Boban, Istorija 20. Veka (op. cit., pp. 52-57;
59. Lekic, Istorija 20. Veka (op. cit., pp. 148-151;
60. Ivan Crkvencic, "Croatia as a Danube Country," GeoJournal, 38 (1996): 455-462 at 456-457;
61. Milovan Djilas' recollections as chairman of the commission are recounted in Milovan Djilas, Rise and Fall (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983), pp. 99-100.
62. Miodrag Jovicic, Drzavnost federalnih jedinica (Belgrade: Naucna knjiga, 1992), p. 84.
63. On the process of the decentralisation of the federal state in the period from 1946 to 1991 see Peter Radan, "Constitutional Law and the Multinational State: The Failure of Yugoslav Federalism," University of New South Wales Law Journal, 21 (1998): 185-203.
64. "Iz govora Generalnog Sekretara KPJ JB Tita na osnivackim kongresu KP Srbije," 8. maj 1945, in Branko Petranovic and Momcilo Zecevic, eds., Jugoslovenski federalizam, Ideje i strvarnost, Tematska zbirka dokumenata, Drugi tom, 1943-1986 (Belgrade: Prosveta, 1987), pp. 158-159.
65. Quoted in Hondius, Jugoslovenski federalizam, Ideje i strvarnost, Tematska zbirka dokumenata, Drugi tom, 1943-1986 (op. cit., p. 180.
66. Lekic, Jugoslovenski federalizam, Ideje i strvarnost, Tematska zbirka dokumenata, Drugi tom, 1943-1986 (op. cit., pp. 147-148.
67. Details of these border adjustments are recounted in Lekic, Jugoslovenski federalizam, Ideje i strvarnost, Tematska zbirka dokumenata, Drugi tom, 1943-1986 (ibid.
68. Cavoski, Jugoslovenski federalizam, Ideje i strvarnost, Tematska zbirka dokumenata, Drugi tom, 1943-1986 (op. cit., p. 8.
69. Slobodan Samardzic, "Yugoslav Federalism: Unsuccessful Model of a Multinational Community," International Review of Sociology, 6 (1996): 249-262 at 250.
70. John Williams, Legitimacy in International Relations and the Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia (London: Macmillan Press Ltd., 1998), pp. 121.
71. David Owen, Balkan Odyssey (London: Victor Gollancz, 1995), p. 33.
72. Walter R. Roberts, "The Tragedy that Could Have Been Averted" in Raju G.C. Thomas and H. Richard Friman, eds., The South Slav Conflict, History, Ethnicity, and Nationalism (New York: Garland Publishing, 1996), pp. 363-373 at 370.
73. Craven, whilst giving qualified support to the approach of the Badinter Commission, nevertheless doubted vfwhether in the long term it is a technique which will provide a permanent and pacific settlement to the underlying territorial disputes": Matthew C.R. Craven, "The European Community Arbitration Commission on Yugoslavia," British Year Book of International Law, 66 (1995): 333-413 at 388.
74. Malcolm N. Shaw, "The Heritage of States: The Principle of Uti Possidetis Juris Today," British Year Book of International Law, 67 (1996): 75-154 at 111.
75. Robert M. Hayden, "Bosnia's Internal War and the International Criminal Tribunal," Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, Vol. 22 (1998), No. 1, 45-61 at 49.
76. See also Williams, Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, op. cit., pp. 140-141.
77. Wayne Bert, The Reluctant Superpower, United States Policy in Bosnia, 1991-95 (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997), pp. 222-223.
78. In his memoirs, Richard Holbrooke, the United States' Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs, concedes that the NATO action was aimed at forcing the submission of the Serbs. During the NATO campaign and the parallel ground offensive by forces from Croatia and the Muslim-Croat coalition in Bosnia-Hercegovina, Holbrooke said to the Croatian Defence Minister, Gojko Susak: "Gojko, I want to be absolutely clear. Nothing we said today should be construed to mean that we want you to stop the rest of the offensive, other than Banja Luka. Speed is important. We can't say so publicly, but please take Sanski Most, Prijedor, and Bosanski Novi. And do it quickly, before the Serbs re-group!": Richard Holbrooke, To End a War (New York: Random House, 1998), p. 166.
79. Ratner, To End a War (op. cit., p. 617.
80. To End a War (Ibid., p. 602.
81. Dubai-Sharjah Border Arbitration, International Law Reports, 91 (1981): 543 at 579.
82. Owen, Dubai-Sharjah Border Arbitration, International Law Reports, op. cit., pp. 34-35.
83. Ratner, Dubai-Sharjah Border Arbitration, International Law Reports, op. cit., p. 603.
84. Dubai-Sharjah Border Arbitration, International Law Reports, Ibid., p. 607.
85. Opinion No. 2 of the Arbitration Commission of the Peace Conference on Yugoslavia, 31 (1992), International Legal Materials 1497.
86. Marc Weller, "The International Response to the Dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia," American Journal of International Law, 86 (1992): 569-607 at 606;
87. Hurst Hannum, "Rethinking Self-Determination," Virginia Journal of International Law, 34 (1993): 1-69 at 39.
88. The proposal as outlined by Milan Djukic, the leader of the Serb Peoples Party, was largely modeled on the constitutional arrangements for the Aaland Islands of Finland where the Swedish population of the island has a considerable degree of autonomy pursuant to the Act on the Autonomy of Aaland 1991. Djukic publicly outlined his views in a newspaper interview: "Srpskih Je Skola u Zagrebu Bilu I Prije, Pa Nema Razloga Da Ih Opet Ne Bude!" Globus, 8. travnja (April) 1994.
89. The concept of a federal structure was also suggested by some opposition leaders in Croatia. On the Aaland autonomy arrangements see Hurst Hannum, ed., Documents on Autonomy and Minority Rights (Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1995), pp. 115-143;
90. Hurst Hannum, Autonomy, Sovereignty, and Self-Determination, The Accommodation of Conflicting Rights (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996, revised edition), pp. 370-375.
91. See for example, "Hrvatska Je Drzava Konstantna Vrijednost: Interview: Veselin Pejinovic," Danas, Nova Serija, Broj 87, Zagreb, 6 rujna. (September) 1994;
92. "Refederaliziranu Hrvatsku Ne Mogu Ni Zamisliti! Interview: Damir Zoric," Danas, Nova Serija, Broj 89, Zagreb, 20 rujna (September) 1994;
93. Tihomir Dujmovic, "Sto Nam to Govore," Nedeljna Dalmacija, Broj 1222, Split, 30 rujna (September) 1994.
94. Jen Laber, "The Hidden War in Turkey," The New York Review of Books, Vol. XLI, No. 12, 23 June 1994.
95. Rich is of the view that, if a nation with its own federal unit is entitled to secede, it would be strange that secession be limited to such federal units and not extended to nations within unitary states: Roland Rich, "Recognition of States: The Collapse of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union," European Journal of International Law, 4 (1993): 36-65 at 61.
96. Zaim M. Necatigil, The Cyprus Question and Turkish Position in International Law, 2nd edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. 231-233.
97. Milan Paunovic, "Serbia's Borders are Inviolable" Review of International Affairs, Vol. 49, No. 1067, 15 April 1998, 1-4.
98. Catriona Drew, "Independence through Devolution - Scotland, Self-determination and the Badinter Paradox," Juridical Review (1996), No. 2, 161-164.
99. John Dugard, "Secession: Is the Case of Yugoslavia a Precedent for Africa?" African Journal of International and Comparative Law, 5 (1993): 163-175.
100. Peter Radan, "The Borders of a Future Independent Quebec: Does the Principle of Uti Possidetis Juris Apply?" Australian Journal of International Law (1987): 200-214;
101. Peter Radan, "The Supreme Court of Canada and the Borders of Quebec," Australian Journal of International Law (1998):171-176.