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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Namibian independence and the question of the contractual and delictual liability of the predecessor and successor governments |
Author: | Strydom, H.A. |
Year: | 1989 |
Periodical: | South African Yearbook of International Law |
Volume: | 15 |
Pages: | 111-121 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Namibia |
Subjects: | State succession liability |
Abstract: | On 21 March 1990, the new independent State of Namibia with a sovereign government supplanted the mandatory power, South Africa, and its government. From the perspective of the predecessor government's municipal law liability for past acts, this change in relationship between the two countries conjures up legal problems of a difficult and complex nature. Two main approaches seem to be currently of interest in addressing these problems. On the one hand, it is argued, the successor State inherits the ensemble of rights and obligations which the predecessor State possessed, including the liabilility of the latter; on the other, such an absolute inheritance is denied; the new sovereign cannot be held responsible for the misdeeds of its predecessor. In absolute terms, neither of these views is compatible with the complex variety of legal relationships and corresponding liabilities usually associated with territorial transfers. This paper sheds some light on the Namibian experience in this respect. It deals with two kinds of liability, contractual liability, which is here limited to a discussion of concessionary rights, and pensions and salaries, and delictual liability, which includes a discussion of two cases of murder in which the South African Defence Force was involved. Notes, ref. |