The dissertation is a comprehensive academic study which, based on an
examination of domestic and foreign academic works, international legal
instruments, the laws of the European Union, and the domestic legislation of
Ukraine, the legislation of certain foreign countries, and the judicial and other law
enforcement practices of the European Union, an analysis of the institute of
succession is carried out from the perspective of its peculiarities in European Union
law. This analysis is based on a methodological toolkit comprising general scientific
and specific legal methods of scientific inquiry, methodological principles of
comprehensiveness and scientific validity, as well as methodological approaches
(essential and substantive, synergistic, systemic, and functional and comparative).
In Chapter 1 of the dissertation, the theoretical and methodological
foundations for the study of succession in international law and European Union law
are presented; the legal nature of the European Union and its legal system are
examined as determining factors for the institution of succession in the EU, along
with the sources of legal regulation governing succession in the law of the European
Union.
It is emphasised that the intensification of contemporary international
relations, manifested in various processes of integration and disintegration, and
fragmentation as a trend in the development of international law, calls for a reexamination
of the phenomenon of succession as a mechanism that ensures the
stability and continuity of the development of international relations and contributes
to the maintenance of the international legal order.
It has been noted that, in both domestic and foreign scholarship on
international law, the main areas of debate concerning succession relate to the
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content of the definition of succession itself, including the objects (cases) of
succession, the subjects of succession, the degree of succession (full, limited,
partial), the use of civil law approaches in interpreting the succession of states, and
the challenges of codifying new areas of succession.
Special attention is paid to the problems of succession in international
organisations, in particular regarding the classification of the factual and legal
elements of such succession, and the identification of its objects, taking into account
the functional nature of international organisations. It is reasoned that the use of the
term “succession in international law” in international legal doctrine better
corresponds to the concept of succession as such, which can be realised as the
succession of states and the succession of international intergovernmental
organisations. Discussional aspects of the concept of limited succession in
international law are examined, and the admissibility of its use for understanding
succession in the context of European integration is argued.
It was noted that the process of development and transformation of European
integration organisations (the European Communities and the European Union), as
set out in their founding treaties, is characterised by the permanence of legal
relationships involving the transfer of rights and obligations, which makes it
possible, in abstracto, to speak of legal succession.
It was emphasized that changes in the European integration organisations (the
European Community replaced the European Economic Community; following the
expiry of the ECSC Treaty in 2002, the functions, assets and international
obligations of the ECSC were transferred to the European Community)
demonstrated the development of legal succession, which was finally enshrined in
Article 1 of the Treaty on European Union as the succession of the European Union
to the European Community.
It is argumented that the legal nature of the EU as a sui generis international
organisation and its legal status are crucial for understanding the peculiarities of
succession in the EU. The specific nature of succession in the EU is determined by
the direct enshrinement in Article 1 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) of the
provision on the succession of the European Union to the European Community, and
by the key functional principles of the EU: the supremacy and direct effect of EU
law, conferral of powers, subsidiarity and proportionality. On a methodological
level, it is important to take into account the international legal nature of European
integration, the organic interconnection among European Union law, international
law and the legislation of EU Member States.
In Chapter 2 of the dissertation, the legal foundations of succession in EU law
are examined, including the legal grounds and consequences of succession, the
features of subjects and objects of succession, and the succession of European
integration organisations in relation to international treaties.
