Legal Nature of Unions in Historical and Contemporary Examples

The paper attempts to explain the objective difference between a state union & a union of states as the respective forms of federative & confederative systems of government. It tries to distinguish between the expressions status of a country & state status & to point out the necessity of distinguishing between constitutional continuity that exists when a country does not change its status & constitutional discontinuity when the state status of a country is changed. The historical & contemporary examples of unions show that no union could have aspired or can aspire to absorb the basic features of its member state(s). The key issues, dealt with from the aspect of contemporary constitutionalism & theoretical idea of a union, are the issues of constitutional discontinuity that occurs when member state(s) decide to leave the union, form independent state(s) & demand international recognition. Adapted from the source document.