| I. | Substantive International Law - First Part |
| 4. | SUBJECTS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW |
| 4.2. | States |
| 4.2.6. | Succession of States |
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Frontier Dispute, Judgment
(Burkina Faso/Republic of Mali)
I.C.J. Reports 1986, p. 554
[p. 566] The territorial boundaries which have to be respected may
also derive from international frontiers which previously divided a colony of
one State from a colony of another, or indeed a colonial territory from the
territory of an independent State, or one which was under protectorate, but had
retained its international personality. There is no doubt that the obligation to
respect pre-existing international frontiers in the event of a State succession
derives from a general rule of international law, whether or not the rule is
expressed in the formula uti possidetis. Hence the numerous solemn
affirmations of the intangibility of the frontiers existing at the time of the
independence of African States, whether made by senior African statesmen or by
organs of the Organization of African Unity itself are evidently declaratory
rather than constitutive: they recognize and confirm an existing principle; and
do not seek to consecrate a new principle or the extension to Africa of a rule
previously applied only in another continent.
