The book “State Continuity and Nationality: The Baltic States and Russia. Past, Present and Future as Defined by International Law” by Ineta Ziemele, professor of the Riga Graduate School of Law, is among the most significant achievements of the Latvian science in 2025. The book is a unique legal research work that reflects a particularly topical issue in international law – the doctrine of state continuity and the resolution of citizenship issues in the Baltic States historically, highlighting the relevance of the solution of both of these issues today and outlining future prospects.
The book documents and explores the story of the Soviet occupation of the Baltic States in 1940 and their claim to state continuity fifty years later. The book asks the question of what citizenship solutions should have been adopted in the region, and shows the attitude of international institutions. The first edition of the book 20 years ago sparked extensive international discussions about resolving issues of state continuity and citizenship, but the expanded second edition marks both an addition to historical facts and a new characterization of the current situation.