The editors of the Baltic Yearbook together with Brill publishers have decided to take stock of the legal research published in the Yearbook since its first issue in 2001 and to publish this collected volume of selected articles that best characterize the particular identity of the Yearbook. On the occasion of the centenary of the three Baltic States in 2018, the Yearbook had already published 17 volumes. Over the years it has carried a variety of articles on a wide range of thematic issues. Altogether the yearbook has published 157 articles by 171 authors. These have included examinations of legal issues within such areas as international humanitarian law, international human rights law, peaceful settlement of disputes, European Union law, history of international law and many others.

An important feature of the Yearbook is that it has carried numerous articles examining diverse legal issues relevant to the international legal status of the Baltic States and the consequences of their occupation by the Soviet Union. The case of the Baltic States raises several interesting international law questions. For example, it illustrates the importance of the distinction between the notions of State continuity and State succession in situations involving internationally wrongful acts, even though the possibility to draw a meaningful distinction generally remains contested in international legal scholarship and practice. It also poses questions falling under the rubric of State responsibility for aggression, long-term occupation, deportation of civilians and other kinds of internationally wrongful acts. There is also the deeply interesting question of time and law, and application of law over time.

In sum, the story of the Baltic States makes one reflect on a much broader question, namely, on consolidation of international law and on the rule of law as a central theme within that process. What does it take to protect the independence of small States bordering an unpredictable neighbour? When asking this question and placing it within the development of the world order after World War II, the plain answer appears. The entire European and global inter-government architecture has been developed to deter aggressive behaviour by unpredictable governments. This is a complex and multifaceted architecture but events such as the occupation of Crimea in 2014 and others show that an inventory of this architecture needs to be carried out so as to identify its weaknesses. An attempt to reform the United Nations fell within this line of thinking. However, it did not lead to any changes in the composition of the UN Security Council, showing that the culture of domination and confrontation remains strong throughout the world and much more effort has to go into changing this state of affairs.

The Yearbook has also contained articles on new themes such as bioethics and cyberspace, including reflections on their possible legal regulation. Human society evolves with evolution of the knowledge that creates new relationships which in turn call for conceptualisation and regulation. There is a particular interest in the digitalization process and its consequences in the Baltic States and unsurprisingly the Yearbook has been a forum for publishing legal studies in this area.

The following thematic issues have been published over the years: the International Legal Status of the Baltic States; Bioethics and Human Rights; State Responsibility; The Future of European Integration; Humanitarian Intervention and the Use of Force; International Law Scholarship in Central-Eastern and Eastern Europe; Arbitration in the Baltics; the August 2008 Russo-Georgian War; the Lithuanian School of International Law; International Law in Post-Soviet Space; Universal Jurisdiction as a Basis for limiting the Scope of Functional Immunity; Low Intensity Cyber Operation – International Legal Regime; Approaches of Liberal and Illiberal Governments to International Law. The authors of the articles come from the world over – all three Baltic States – Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia – as well as Australia, Austria, Belgium, Belarus, Canada, China, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Turkey, the UK, Ukraine, and the USA.

James Crawford, now a judge of the International Court of Justice, wrote the preface for Volume 1 in 2001 which is included in this collected volume. He remarked that the Baltic Yearbook of International Law was joining the crowded world of international law periodical publishing. That was indeed the case. The question of the identity of the Yearbook among all the other general and specialized, national and regional international law journals was always present. After 17 volumes what could be said about the identity and contribution that the Yearbook has made to international legal scholarship?

First of all, it is clear that the Yearbook continues to build its identity and acquire a place among international legal periodicals. With volume 17 and this collected volume the Baltic Yearbook has settled in Riga, Latvia, and has become a legal periodical published by the Riga Graduate School of Law (RGSL). Established in 1998, RGSL has emerged as a leading legal education and research institute in the Baltic region. RGSL offers numerous study programmes in the area of International and European Law at bachelor and master’s level involving a large number of eminent scholars and practitioners based in the local environment, elsewhere in Europe, and overseas. The result is a merger between its institutional affiliation and the original purpose. That purpose is not only linked to examining the remarkable story of the Baltic States in international law. Above all the Yearbook is a forum which allows scholars from the region to be heard in international legal debate. Even if values such as equality, plurality of opinion, and diversity are generally accepted, including mainstream international law discourse, facts are often at variance. It is important that an endeavour such as this Yearbook gives meaning to the terms plurality and equal participation. Publication with a focus on what could be called the periphery provides greater opportunity for those who do not come from long established academic institutions and legal traditions. Availability of opportunities to share and take part in a wider discourse is also important for enhancing scholarship within the Baltic region.

Secondly, the editors consider that publication of State practice reports from the three Baltic States shares a very similar goal. In international law, State practice is not limited to what a few big States do. Rules are formed by embracing the plurality of States and other actors in many different ways. The Yearbook delivers, in an understandable form and language, what the three States have to say about rules and normative processes in the world. The Yearbook thereby makes practice by Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania accessible to scholars and decision makers around the world. This has proved to be an important part of the Yearbook’s identity.

For the purposes of this volume the editors of the Yearbook have selected those articles published over the years that most closely depict the Yearbook’s contribution to international legal scholarship and practice. Therefore this volume carries articles on issues arising in the context of the occupation of the Baltic States by the Soviet Union and articles on transitional justice and the collapse of communism as well as articles showing where the development of science prompts the need for legal regulation. The editors have also included a new article on human dignity in the age of rapid development of science to exemplify how the issues have evolved since the Yearbook first addressed them. In view of the fact that issues that are of particular interest in the Baltic States have attracted research in different parts of the world and the Yearbook has carried articles by authors well beyond the Baltic region, it is evident that the Yearbook has by now established itself among other international law periodicals with its clear identity – where the past meets the future.

Ineta Ziemele ^*