The Editors of the Baltic Yearbook are pleased to announce a call for papers for the anniversary volume of the Baltic Yearbook of International Law. In 2018 Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania celebrate their 100-year anniversaries. All three States were founded in 1918.
The history of the Baltic statehood gives rise to many international law questions starting with the secession from the Russian Empire and the creation of three new States in 1918 and, of course, the restoration of their independence in 1990-1991, the accession to the EU and NATO in 2004. Since volume 1 the Baltic Yearbook of International Law has addressed many issues linked to the statehood of the Baltic States. Nevertheless, there is new research done and new questions come up. For example, Lithuania opened the KGB archives and only in 2017 published the files thereof, while in Latvia the debate about these archives remains very complex and sensitive. Also the territorial questions have given rise to disputes. Latvia signed and ratified the border agreement with the Russian Federation while Estonia and Russia have not yet ratified their border treaties (concerning borders at land and at sea). In 2015 the three Baltic ministers of Justice signed a common declaration about the cooperation in calculating the damage caused to the Baltic States during the Soviet occupation, but this declaration was not followed by official claims. In other contexts, issues of minority rights and protection have been with the Baltic States since the 1920s, and they certainly returned in the 1990s. Furthermore, since the Baltic nations were born in 1918 with explicit references to the right of peoples to self-determination, it has been asked whether the Baltic case is a precedent in the context of this right as well. Or one could more generally examine, by the example of the Baltic States, how small states operate in the context of conflicting geopolitical claims, and how international law is relevant in such contexts.
 
The editors of the Baltic Yearbook of International Law invite the scholars to address legal issues that in their view best characterize the 100 year old statehood of the Baltic States.
 
Articles should be submitted by 1 October 2018. They should be sent to the following address: Kristine.Zubkane@satv.tiesa.gov.lv
 
The authors guidelines should be consulted and followed in the preparation of the article. They are reproduced in each volume of the Baltic Yearbook of International Law.