Illegal annexation and state continuity: the case of the incorporation of the Baltic States by the USSR : a study of the tension between normativity and power in international law

Review '... Illegal Annexation and State Continuity offers valuable insight to both the legal basis for the finding that the Baltic states continued their international legal personalities, and the effects of this determination on the subsequent development of international law.'American Journal of International Law, Volume 88 No. 3.'...Mälksoo makes a clear contribution to scholarship by putting together various elements to form a coherent thesis, with an argument well supported by fact. Readers of English Literature can also benefit from access to German and Baltic doctrine, through Mälksoo's reliance on sources in these languages.'Yaël Ronen for Global and European Law Books Review Program. Product Description After having been submerged within the Soviet Union since 1940, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania suddenly reappeared in 1991 as internationally recognized states as through the intervening half century had never happened. Mälksoo (international and European law, U. of Tartu) examines the remarkable and astonishing event, asking such questions as what happened in reality, what role did international law play, what can international lawyers know or respectively predict, and was this the first time ever that states were in practice more progressive than legal scholars or were they cheating the scholars by adopting an ex post legal or political fiction. The study was his July 2002 doctoral dissertation in law for Humboldt University Berlin. Martinus-Nijhoff is an imprint of Brill. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) About the Author Lauri Mälksoo defended his doctoral dissertation under the supervision of Professor Christian Tomuschat at the Faculty of Law of the Humboldt University Berlin. The dissertation was conferred an award by the Humboldt University Library Society "Friends of the Faculty of Law". Dr. Mälksoo now works as counselor for the Estonian Legal Chancellor (ombudsman) and as lecturer of international and European law at the University of Tartu.