Baltic Yearbook of International Law - Five-Year Anniversary

• Author: Ineta Ziemele
• Position: Professor, Editor-in Chief of BYIL
• Pages: 203-204

Ineta Ziemele

Professor, Editor-in Chief of BYIL

Baltic Yearbook of International Law - Five-Year Anniversary

The Baltic Yearbook of International Law was founded in 2001. The first volume contained articles by Baltic and international scholars about the various issues relevant to the debate about the occupation of the Baltic States in 1940 by Soviet troops and the restoration of their independence in 1990-1991. The year 2001 was important in the history of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania since the process of restoration of independence was completed ten years earlier.

Since the first volume, three additional volumes have appeared, and another is under preparation and will come out at the end of 2005. The yearbook is a Baltic endeavour, with an editorial board consisting of well-known international law scholars from the three Baltic States. It is assisted by an international advisory board. The yearbook is published by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers in the Netherlands. The main language is English, but, true to the yearbook’s international character, articles in French and German can also be accepted for publication. The editorial office is based in Sweden at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, and it is largely thanks to this institute that the yearbook has become a reality, since the strength of academic institutions in the three Baltic States may not yet have reached the level where such an international project could be implemented.

International distribution, as provided by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, is very important since it is a crucial feature of the yearbook to publish articles about Baltic affairs that may not be well known outside the Baltic region. At the same time, the yearbook is a forum for international debate not limited to Baltic issues or authors. It is a Baltic contribution to the strengthening of the international rule of law in international and regional affairs.

The Baltic Yearbook is discovering a new generation of international lawyers in the Baltic States and around the world and provides them with a forum for comments on issues that they have researched in international law.Applying a thematic approach, each volume of the yearbook is dedicated to a theme that is topical internationally or in the region. The issues published so far have covered these themes: ‘International Legal Status of the Baltic States’, ‘Bioethics and Human Rights’, ‘Reparations for Internationally Wrongful Acts...