Theories and Practice of State Succession to Bilateral Treaties: The Recent Experience of Kosovo
This article explores the most recent practice, as exemplified by the case of Kosovo, concerning succession to treaties in international law. In doing so, it examines the precise meaning and legal effects under international law of relevant provisions of the Declaration of Independence (DoI) of Kosovo with respect to international treaties concluded by the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) or, as applicable, any other predecessor entity. More specifically, the aim is to identify and comprehend the fundamental principles underlying the existing or developing practice of treaty succession, and to situate it within a broader framework of succession in international law. Kosovo's absence from key multilateral regimes, in particular the United Nations, dictates a focus on succession to bilateral treaties. Kosovo is in the process of establishing with its partners the status of its bilateral treaties undertaken by way of succession.
The Status of Durand Line under International Law: An International Law Approach to the Pakistan-Afghanistan Frontier Dispute
ABSTRACT The Durand Agreement, which gave birth to the Durand Line-the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, is one of the most controversial issues for Afghanistan. This Agreement resulted in the annexation of a part of the territory of Afghanistan to British-India (now in Pakistan). Although, the agreement was concluded by the direct participation of the ruler of Afghanistan, the consecutive governments of Afghanistan, in particular, those after partition of British-India, refused to accept Durand Line as an international border. They asserted that the territory of Afghanistan extends beyond the Durand Line, thereby giving rise to a dispute with the neighboring state of Pakistan. What course of action should be adopted by the government and the people of Afghanistan within the contours of international law in order to resolve the border dispute with Pakistan is always being pertinent. This necessarily entails two significant arguments- (1) whether the disagreement over the Durand Border between Afghanistan and Pakistan falls in a “dispute” situation and (2) if there exists a legal dispute, how it should be settled. The paper, therefore, tries to examine above-mentioned arguments and suggests legal/practical solutions within the international law framework to prevent further conflict, thus taking a momentous pace towards regionalism.
On the validity of area-based income measures to proxy household income
BackgroundThis paper assesses the agreement between household-level income data and an area-based income measure, and whether or not discrepancies create meaningful differences when applied in regression equations estimating total household prescription drug expenditures.MethodsUsing administrative data files for the population of BC, Canada, we calculate income deciles from both area-based census data and Canada Revenue Agency validated household-level data. These deciles are then compared for misclassification. Spearman's correlation, kappa coefficients and weighted kappa coefficients are all calculated. We then assess the validity of using the area-based income measure as a proxy for household income in regression equations explaining socio-economic inequalities in total prescription drug expenditures.ResultsThe variability between household-level income and area-based income is large. Only 37% of households are classified by area-based measures to be within one decile of the classification based on household-level incomes. Statistical evidence of the disagreement between income measures also indicates substantial misclassification, with Spearman's correlations, kappa coefficients and weighted kappa coefficients all indicating little agreement. The regression results show that the size of the coefficients changes considerably when area-based measures are used instead of household-level measures, and that use of area-based measures smooths out important variation across the income distribution.ConclusionThese results suggest that, in some contexts, the choice of area-based versus household-level income can drive conclusions in an important way. Access to reliable household-level income/socio-economic data such as the tax-validated data used in this study would unambiguously improve health research and therefore the evidence on which health and social policy would ideally rest.