ПОЛОЖАЈ ФЕДЕРАТИВНИХ ДРЖАВА У МЕЂУНАРОДНОЈ ЗАЈЕДНИЦИ
THE POSITION OF FEDERAL STATES IN THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

Summary/Abstract: Referring to the numerous examples in the international judicial and diplomatic practice, the author is of the opinion that the federation appears as the outward subject of international law, and not the individual federal units. Analysis of Articles 281., 283., 285., 313., and 315. of the Constitution of the S.F.R. Yugoslavia allow a conclusion that the Constitution leaves no room for speculation with regard to the legal position of Yugoslavia, which appears on the international scene as a oneness, as a united community. As to the position of the federal units, the author engages in a polemic argument with certain theoreticians, explaining the position of the United Nations Commission for International Law, adding that the views of these certain theoreticians, who contend that federal units are also independent subjects of international law, have little, or no impact whatsoever on practice. Both judicial and diplomatic practice, for the past century and a half, that is how old this problem is, have pursued the line of thought recognising only the federation as the sovereign state i.e. subject of international law, regardless of the restrictions which may have been imposed by the Constitution. The jurisdiction of the federal units, according to the author, does not derive from international law, but the federal constitution, an internal legal act. The second part of the essay is devoted to the analysis of the legal system of the S.F.R. Yugoslavia, the role and activities of the federal units and autonomous provinces in regard to international affairs. In that context she draws attention to certain gaps in the Constitution of 1974 gives the individual republics and autonomous provinces certain limited rights of independent activity in international affairs, „within the frame of the determined foreign policy of the S.F.R. Yugoslavia and international agreements”, there were also recorded certain separate activities of same of the individual federal units, which, in the opinion of the author, can only have detrimental consequences. All the more because the federation is responsible for the activities, also mistakes or omissions, of the federal units comprising it.

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