Conference on Yugoslavia Arbitration Commission: Opinion No. 1
Arbitration Commission of the Conference on Yugoslavia
31 I.L.M 1494 (1992)
After Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina declared independence from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and ethnic conflict erupted, particularly involving Serbian populations in Bosnia and Croatia, the European Community convened the Conference on Yugoslavia and established an Arbitration Commission of European constitutional-court judges to resolve legal questions arising from the region's transformation; Serbia (defendant) argued the situation was merely a secession of individual republics from an intact Yugoslavia, while the other republics (plaintiffs) argued the entire federal state had dissolved.
Whether, to be considered a sovereign nation under international law, a country must be a community that consists of territory and a population subject to a central political power.