Belarusian Journal of International Law and International Relations 1999 — N 1
Summaries
International Law
Theoretical Issues
The Status of the International Legal Subject of the Republic of Belarus in the Conditions of Integration — Yuri Brovka
Towards the Provision Mechanism of the Implementation of International (Inter-State) Agreements by the CIS Member-states — Grachya Simonyan
Legal Succession of the Republic of Belarus in Respect of State Property — Tatiana Ushakova
International Law and Domestic Law
Direct Action Issues of the Universally Recognized Norms of International Law on Human Rights and Freedoms in the Republic of Belarus — Alla Zybailo
International Humanitarian Law
Differences, Similarities and Complementarity between International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights — Pierre Apraxine
International Mechanism of Implementation of Norms of International Law — Vitaliy Kalugin
International Relations
The Election Results in the Federative Republic of Germany and German-Belarusian Relations Prospects — Felix Pribytkovski, Alexandr Sharapo
Belarusian-German economic relations (1991—1996) — Andrey Rusakovich
The EU, WEU, NATO and European Security Problems — Ludmila Khukhlyndina
On the Current Situation in the CIS and Its Development Prospects — Alexandr Gordeichik, Vladimir Snapkovski
The Development of Cultural Relations of Belarus with the Countries of Central and Western Europe (1985—1991) — Victor Shadursky
Towards of the Issue of the Borders of Belarus — Tatiana Pavlova
International Economic Relations
The Main Trends of Export and Import Development of Foreign Countries — Ludmila Petrovskaya, Pavel Shipuk
Towards the Enterprise Location Selection Abroad — Oleg Anissko, Alexey Danilchenko
Regulations of Modern International Migration and Peculiarities of Its Regulation — Valentina Migas, Alexandra Nechai
Genesis of the Theories of Currency Exchange Rates — Olga Kirvel
FULL ISSUE 
ENGLISH SUMMARIES
“The Status of the International Legal Subject of the Republic of Belarus in the Conditions of Integration” (Yuri Brovka)
Belarusian-Russian summit negotiations concluded in the end of 1998. The Presidents of the two countries signed a Joint Statement and the Declaration on further unification of Belarus and Russia. The leaders of the two states expressed “their determination to continue further stage-by-stage movement towards voluntary unification into a union state with the national sovereignity of the Union member-states retained”. Both Presidents stressed that Belarus and Russia will remain “sovereign and full members of the international community of states, they retain all rights and obligations on international treaties the party to which they are”.
What is meant by “a union state” in this particular case? Proceeding from classical concepts, “a union state” is nothing but a federation. But in this case there is no question of preserving sovereignity and international legal subject status regarding two uniting states, neither there is a question of their remaining the full members of international community. In accordance with the traditional approach the federation member-states are not sovereign and do not have a right of voluntary secession. Typically, they are not “proper” international legal subjects. Only rarely the composite parts of some modern federations can show activity on the international scale which is limited by the scope of authority delegated by the federal centre. The only exception in the XX century from the above mentioned practice was connected with the activities of the Belarusian and Ukrainian SSR as parts of the USSR in the form of union republics. Along with the USSR these republics were the UN members which opened a wide range of possibilities for the membership in other international intergovernmental organizations and for the participation in the international treaties of universal nature. Besides, the originality of the USSR manifested itself also in the fact that its member-states were regarded to be sovereign and reserved a right of voluntary secession from the Union. However, the republics of the Union including the UN members (BSSR and USSR) while formally retaining such a high level of independence were in fact under severe pressure of the superstate structures of the USSR Communist Party. Not that any bodies of state administration and authorities were exempt from state pressure on the part of the CPSU.
The author recognizes that it is impossible to reconstruct the unique formation of the USSR. He believes that there are neither objective nor subjective pre-requisites for the realization of this integration model.
The author’s view is that the next step in Belarusian-Russian integration should be completed by the establishing of the Confederative Union of states in which the members — the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation — will retain in full the sovereignity and status of the international legal subject, will remain the member-states of the UN and will retain without any exceptions the international treaty capacity. As for the international legal subject status of the Belarusian-Russian Federation, it may well correspond to the level of such international regional unions as the CIS, the EU, the Arab League etc.
“Towards the Provision Mechanism of the Implementation of International (Inter-State) Agreements by the CIS Member-states” (Grachya Simonyan)
The article “Towards the Provision Mechanism of the Implementation of International (Inter-State) Agreements by the CIS Member-states” explores the reasons for ineffectiveness of the mechanism of implementation of the CIS acts. It introduces suggestions for perfecting the legal mechanism of their implementation on the basis of the analysis of issues arising in the process of realization of the Commonwealth acts.
The author draws the following conclusions and makes the suggestions:
a) to outline a clear, compact structure of the Commonwealth bodies with the appropriate wide and concrete range of responsibilities taking into account the European Union’s experience;
b) to revise all acts adopted in order to determine which of them are not relevant any more and consequently to recognize them out of force; to determine also whether the acts in any particular sphere of cooperation correspond to each other and to single out the states which have not fulfilled their obligations on the Commonwealth acts;
c) to determine the body responsible for the juridical expertise of all drafts of the acts introduced to be adopted within the Commonwealth framework and to provide control in order to prevent violation of the universally recognized principles and norms during the formation of the CIS law;
d) to establish the schedule for consideration and ratification (implementation of internal state procedures) of treaties (agreements) signed by the member-states or develop and sign a general agreement regulating the order and schedule of consideration and ratification of signed treaties (agreements);
e) to determine a body responsible for providing the control of enforcing the acts adopted in the CIS framework and to give it wide powers as follows: the right to inform the Council of the Heads of the States, the right to address the target state with a proposal to fulfil its obligations, the right to appeal to the CIS legal body with a proposal of imposing certain measures (sanctions) on the target state;
f) to outline a list of measures (sanctions) for not fulfilling treaties, agreements and directives within the CIS framework and mechanism of their implementation.
The following measures and sanctions are suggested:
— suspension of the right to vote in the Council of the Heads of the States and in the Council of the Heads of the Governments;
— suspension of the membership in the CIS;
— suspension of the participation within the framework of a certain treaty (agreement);
— imposing a fine on the target state.
The author believes that it is necessary to determine a concrete body with a right to apply certain measures (sanctions) to the states, which avoid fulfillment of any obligations.
“Legal Succession of the Republic of Belarus in Respect of State Property” (Tatiana Ushakova)
The article “Legal Succession of the Republic of Belarus in Respect of State Property” examines the problem of succession in respect of State property with reference to the practice of the Republic of Belarus after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Taking into consideration the comparison of the international law rules in this sphere, in particular, as fixed in the 1983 Vienna Convention, and the statements of the agreements adopted in the framework of the CIS, the tendencies of the distribution of property in the territory of the USSR and abroad are retraced.
In the process of succession concerning of the first kind of property the preference has been made for the territorial principle to the detriment of the principle of equity. Possible orientation to exercise the rights of the Republic of Belarus more effectively could be: activization of the work on legal provision and implementing the takeover by the Republic or changing into the regime of joint ownership of the objects of property which are situated on the territory of the state-members of the CIS and have been constructed and maintained at the former BSSR’s budget expense; execution of the rights of a State which does not have access to the sea according to the 1982 UN Convention on Sea Law.
As for succession in respect of property abroad, following the signing of the Agreement on the serving of the external debt of the former USSR between the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation, the question of the compensation or taking a share of the foreign property of the former USSR is no longer relevant. Belarus has transferred its share in the assets including the USSR property abroad to the account as its share of the external debt to Russia.
“Direct Action Issues of the Universally Recognized Norms of International Law on Human Rights and Freedoms in the Republic of Belarus” (Alla Zybailo)
The special status of universally recognized norms of the international law on human rights and freedoms in the Republic of Belarus is confirmed by Article 21 of its Constitution “the state guarantees individual rights and freedoms of the citizens of Belarus fixed in the Constitution laws and stipulated by the international obligations of the state”.
It can hardly be said on the basis of Article 8, that universally recognized norms on individual rights take priority over national legislation and are an integral part of the existing law of the republic.
The Constitution of the Republic of Belarus in its Article 8 fixed the universally recognized principles (but not the norms) of international law. The law “On international treaties of the Republic of Belarus” of 1998 declares them to be a part of the existing law of the country. But even in this case the conclusion, that implementation of norms of international law in domestic legislation is made on the basis of the principles of monist concept, seems to be premature mostly due to the fact, that the recognition by a state of the priority of universally recognized principles of international law does not mean the recognition of the priority of international legal norms over the national ones.
Principles of law manifest themselves through the law norms, “need to be given concrete expression, don’t lead directly to the hypotheses and sanctions; which makes it difficult to judge about definite legal regulation control”. That is why direct operation of the universally recognized principles of international law seems to be hardly possible due to their general nature. They are not really self-executing and this must be taken into consideration by legislators.
As far as the universal norms of international law are concerned, the majority of them (especially the norms on human rights) have concrete contents and can be directly applied in the national legal system. For the application of a universally recognized norm by the court it is necessary to make sure it is recognized by the country of the court.
The recognition of the priority of universally recognized (common) norms of international law had not been the intention of the legislator, but there are reasons to suppose that the universally recognized norms on human rights correspond to the level of the constitutional norms.
The Republic of Belarus is a party to all basic universal international treaties in the sphere of human rights. According to the law “On international treaties of the Republic of Belarus” (Article 15), these treaties are a part of the current legislation in the republic. Although law does not declare the priority of ratified international treaties which have come into force over the normative acts of the Republic of Belarus of all levels, there are grounds to suppose that the international treaties ratified by the Republic of Belarus rank second to the Constitution in the hierarchy of normative acts.
Branch legislation of the republic is based mostly on the recognition of the priority of international treaties’ norms over national laws. However only the priority of application in a particular case is in question here.
The priority of such an application is extended to the regulations of all international treaties of the Republic of Belarus which came into power (one would like to add: “and published in the prescribed manner”), because their regulations are declared to be a point of legislation of the Republic of Belarus and consequently are to be directly applied.
But the law norms of the Republic of Belarus do not give evidence of the fact that Belarusian courts can apply the international norms on human rights in case of the lacunae in national legislation or in cases of collisions with the international treaty on human rights. Article 112 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus orders the courts to be guided by the Constitution and the normative acts adopted in accordance with it during law administration, i. e. the given constitutional norm actually “brings to naught” (for the judges) the regulation on direct application of all international norms.
However, the constitutional norm on the rights and freedoms of the citizens of the Republic of Belarus does not hinder Belarusian courts to be guided by its international legal interpretation during the consideration of any particular case. The neglect of such an interpretation may lead to the violation of the pacta sunt servanda principle and will be confirmed by the international monitoring body. The court practice on this issue in our country is extremely insignificant and concentrates in the Supreme Court of the republic. This fact can be explained by the traditionally cautious attitude of judges towards international law.
At first stage it is necessary to solve the issues of interpretation of all national laws with regard to the rights and freedoms of the citizens of Belarus (before the opportunity of introducing amendments to Article 112 of the Constitution arises).
The effectiveness of international obligations assumed by the states and the effectiveness of internal legislation in the sphere of protection of human rights and freedoms can be provided only with the help of a regulated mechanism of interpretation and application of national laws.
Ratification of international treaties of the Republic of Belarus is performed in the form of a law of the Republic of Belarus, i. e. a judge can apply directly that law in case of a juridical conflict with a treaty or a lacuna in national legislation.
Ratification law does not prevail over other laws but it puts no obstacles for treaties to have actual privilege over national laws. This result is achieved through interpretation as it is supposed that the national legislation did not intend to create a situation for the violation of the state treaty obligations.
Unfortunately, judges and other law enforcers in the Republic of Belarus are not ready yet for their new role of interpreters and enforcers of the international law norms.
“Differences, Similarities and Complementarity between International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights” (Pierre Apraxine)
International humanitarian law means rules which are specifically intended to protect victims of international or non-international armed conflicts and to limit the right of belligerents to use certain means and methods of warfare. These rules are based on the balance between military necessity and humanitarian needs. Human rights law comprises rights and freedoms which are based on the inherent dignity and value of the human being as such.
These two branches of law have different material and personal scope of application.
Unlike human rights law applicable at all times, international humanitarian law applies only in time of armed conflict. Derogation in human rights law is generally allowed in times of war or other public emergency, with the exception of the so-called “hard-core” human rights which must be respected in all circumstances. These are the right to life, the prohibition of torture and other inhuman treatment, the prohibition of slavery and the prohibition of retroactive criminal legislation or punishment. International humanitarian law excludes the concept of derogation as such. Even if some of its norms are not expressly listed as non-derogable in human rights treaties, they continue to be applicable and must be respected in all circumstances in time of armed conflict.
Human rights law is applicable to all individuals. Most of the rules of international humanitarian law are intended to protect victims of war, i. e. persons in the power of the enemy State. However, humanitarian law contains clear provisions in favour of a State’s own nationals. These are, for example, rules relating to the protection of victims of non-international armed conflicts.
Some human rights have no equivalent in international humanitarian law. However, there are ways in which international humanitarian law overlaps with human rights norms. In this connection , “hard-core” rights are revealing.
The right to life is the prime inherent and non-derogable human right. A major part of international humanitarian law is devoted to its protection. Humanitarian law contains a careful delimitation of what can and cannot be done during hostilities in order to spare as much as possible the lives of persons hors de combat, civilians and even combatants. In certain cases, international humanitarian law protects life in a way that goes beyond the traditional civil right to life (special protection of civilians, obligation to provide protection and assistance to the wounded and sick, obligation to provide adequate living conditions for prisoners of war and civilian internees, obligation to accept outside relief shipments, restrictions on the imposition and execution of the death penalty).
The prohibition of torture and other inhuman treatment is another “hard-core” human right. International humanitarian law also contains an absolute prohibition of such behaviour. Moreover, torture or inhuman treatment constitute war crimes under basic treaties of international humanitarian law. Persons having committed or have ordered to be committed such acts must be subject to criminal prosecution by States or can be brought before international criminal courts.
The crucial importance of judicial guarantees to protect fundamental human rights is widely recognized. However, judicial guarantees are not expressly listed as non-derogable in most of the human rights treaties and consequently may cease to be applicable in times of emergency. Nevertheless, by virtue of international humanitarian law, judicial guarantees will apply in their entirety from the beginning of any armed conflict.
Thus, international humanitarian law reinforces and helps to protect the most fundamental human rights, be it the situation when the rules of international humanitarian law correspond to human rights which may cease to apply in case of public emergency or the situation when international humanitarian law protects the human being in a way that goes beyond the protection provided for by human rights law.
“International Mechanism of Implementation of Norms of International Law” (Vitaliy Kalugin)
The article “International Mechanism of Implementation of Norms of International Law” is devoted to the consideration of one of the most topical issues of international humanitarian law — the realization of its regulations. The overwhelming majority of the international legal norms included to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 is realized through national implementation mechanism. However, the implementation of the norms of international law on the national level is the basic, though not the only, way of their realization. Additional international legal and legal and organizational means of provision of implementation on the international level are fixed in the norms of international humanitarian law. Their aggregate comprises the international mechanism of the law regulations.
The author gives the definition to the international mechanism of implementation of the norms of international humanitarian law, seeing it as a system of means established both with the help of the combined efforts of states and used by any state with the object of thorough, timely and full realization of obligations assumed in accordance with the international humanitarian law.
The article analyses the contents and efficacy of the given provision of realization of the international humanitarian law on the international level on the basis of regulations of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and other international legal instruments. The analysis is based on the investigations in accordance with the Geneva Conventions of 1949, the establishment of facts in accordance with Article 90 of Additional Protocol I, process of taking measures by the States, either individual or combined, in cooperation with the UN and in accordance with the UN Chapter, nomination of the Protector State and its subinstitutions.
The resources of the International Committee of the Red Cross as a subinstitution of the Protector State (first of all in assistance to the victims of international conflicts) are used most effectively of all existing international mechanisms. The article draws attention to the alarming trend of the increase of special commissions set up as an alternative to the international commission on establishment of facts and absence of application of its potential controlling resources in modern military conflicts.
The author believes that Article 89 of Additional Protocol I can become a sufficiently flexible instrument of law which would enable to react appropriately and influence the situations during military conflicts because it allows to go beyond the framework of the international humanitarian law proper and to use other legal regulations of the States and the UNO for its realization by the parties to the conflict.
Such prospective resources aimed at respecting international humanitarian law and stopping its grave violations either by states or by individuals potentially exist ad hoc within the activities of international tribunals. They are also fixed in the activities of international criminal court, which is regarded as an international mechanism of institution of responsibility in cases of the absence of national legal bodies or their failure to carry out their functions (to be established in accordance with the statute of international criminal court adopted on July 17, 1998 in Rome).
The article concludes that a certain aggregate of organizational and legal means has been formed which allows on the whole to provide the implementation of norms of international humanitarian law at the interstate level. Meanwhile, the existence of international humanitarian law is one of the most significant peculiarities of this sphere of international public law which permits the member-states of the Geneva Convention of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 “to respect or force to respect” these international legal norms to this or that extent. The basic elements of this mechanism are still being perfected and are aimed at establishing effective procedures called to provide the realization of international obligations on limiting the tragic consequences of military conflicts.
“The Election Results in the Federative Republic of Germany and German-Belarusian Relations Prospects” (Felix Pribytkovski, Alexandr Sharapo)
The article “The Election Results in the Federative Republic of Germany and German-Belarusian Relations Prospects” outlines the main results of the elections to the German Bundesgtag which took place in September, 1998, citing also their statistics. The most important of them are: the victory of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (40,9 % of voters and 298 delegates in Bundestag), the defeat of the Christian Democratic Union (35,2 % of voters and 246 delegates in Bundestag) and also the appearance of the Party of Democratic Socialism of Germany on the political arena (5,1 % of voters and 35 delegations). The victory of social democrats has created a completely new political situation in Europe in which all four leading European economies (treat Britain, France, Italy, Germany) are ruled by the governments of the left centre.
The article presents the main reasons for the CDU defeat and reflects the dynamics of popularity decrease of H. Kohl and his party.
It devotes much attention to the political profile of H. Schroeder and his views on many European issues. The article recognizes his pragmatism especially in the economic sphere and stresses his readiness to claim “a special opinion” on many topical issues in Europe (relations with NATO, nuclear disarmament, formation of the EU budget etc.).
The article analyses the main aspects of German policy towards the East, Russian-German and Belarusian German relations in particular. It mentions the main agreements between Germany and the Republic of Belarus concluded in the 90-s and also other measures of activization of relations between the two countries.
The article concludes by stressing the willingness of new government of Germany to expand and retain its leadership among the countries of Western Europe. This situation provides more favourable prospects for the Belarusian-German relations.
“Belarusian-German economic relations (1991—1996)” (Andrey Rusakovich)
The article “Belarusian-German economic relations (1991—1996)” is devoted to one of the most important directions of the international economic policy of the Republic of Belarus — the relations with the FRG in 1991—96. The economic cooperation of the two countries in the given period was implemented along the following directions: the formation of a legal agreement base, determination of development strategy of bilateral economic relations, the activities of Belarusian-German Council on economic cooperation, trade development, cooperation in the spheres of direct investments and loans, consulting and expertise assistance in the organization of professional training and refresher courses, participation in exhibitions and international economic projects etc. During the period of 1991—96 Belarusian-German relations were an important factor of the development of Belarusian economy, promotion of its reform towards the establishment of market relations. Germany was the leading trade and economic partner of Belarus among the countries of Western Europe. It took the leading role among other countries what concerns the realization of a range of directions of economic cooperation in Belarus: coordination of economic relations, consulting and expert assistance, cooperation in the sphere of overcoming of consequences of the Chernobyl disaster, training and retraining of specialists, loan granting, direct investment and international trade. Directions and possibilities of cooperation of the two countries were not realized in full due to several reasons: imperfection of the legal base of the economic reform, the inconsistent policy of Belarusian authorities in the sphere of structural reform, unwillingness to change the property relations, to develop small and medium business, the use of administrative methods of economy regulation and the actions aimed at close economic and political cooperation with the Russian Federation — all that has made potential partners and investors in Germany apprehensive. Nevertheless, the potential, experience and the results of economic cooperation of Belarus and Germany in 1991—96 are significant for further development of the bilateral relations.
“The EU, WEU, NATO and European Security Problems” (Ludmila Khukhlyndina)
The article “The EU, WEU, NATO and European Security Problems” is devoted to the issues of formation of the new architecture of European security and the place of such institutes as the Western European Union, the European Union, NATO within its structures. At the turn of the century Europe is in search of a new system of security, which does not aim to create a new balance of power; it rejects its consideration in the military political categories, but strives to develop answers to the challenges in economy, ecology, democracy, culture, information and other spheres. The end of “the cold war”, the disintegration of the Warsaw treaty organization and of the whole socialist camp and close political, economic and military integration of Western Europe have created a situation by means of which the countries of the European Community obtained the opportunity to present a single position at the international level and to make a bid for the role of a “new military political power centre”.
The single act included in its regulations the concept of the European security, fixing political cooperation of European states. Its provisions entail European security formally becoming an integral part of the international policy of the European community.
The Western European Union, created in 1948, had not had any real legal rights and means to provide security to its members for a long time. Only in February, 1984 France introduced a memorandum on the Western European Union reformation which was supported by all Western European Union member-states. After “The Rome Declaration” of 1984 on political aims of the Western European Union the reformation of the Western European Union has begun.
The article analyses the changes which took place in the Western European Union activities in the 1990s; it distinguishes between the short-term, medium-term and long-term prospects of the WEU evolution.
The main objective of the WEU in the short-term period will be the development of operational possibilities. In the medium-term the prospects, according to the opinion of the experts of the WEU assembly, will be closely connected to the development of relations between France and the North-Atlantic bloc. Here the adoption of the concept of joint combined arms task forces and development of relations along the axis: NATO — countries of Central and Eastern Europe. In the long-term prospect the main direction of the WEU evolution seems to be the definition of the role and place of the organization within the EU. The article gives the characteristics of various views on the problem of possible integration of the EU and the WEU.
At the same time the concept of single European defence in the form stipulated in the Maastricht treaty leads inevitably to the integration of the EU and NATO through the WEU.
The united Western Europe is a quite influential member of international relations. It sets itself the objectives of the establishment of an European system of defence in accordance with the treaty on the European Union, strengthening of trans-Atlantic relations, willingness to avoid the revival of antagonist military blocs including the increase of the number of the members of the EU. On the whole it means the establishment of a new security system called upon to substitute the antagonism of the times of “the cold war”.
“On the Current Situation in the CIS and Its Development Prospects” (Alexandr Gordeichik, Vladimir Snapkovski)
The article “On the Current Situation in the CIS and Its Development Prospects” offers a complex study of the trends of development of mutual understanding, security and cooperation between the CIS member states in socio-economic, political and military spheres.
The authors outline the causes for the crisis within the CIS, the economic interrelations of the CIS states, the relations of the CIS member-states in the military sphere, the geopolitical factors of the members-states development, the system-shaping factor of Russia, the position of Ukraine concerning the CIS reforming and the prospects for the development of the CIS at the present stage.
The article analyses the importance of the interrelations of the former USSR republics in the context of their foreign policy strategies, and throws light on the forms and the ways of the economic interrelations and the integrational links between Belarus and the CIS member-states.
The authors succeeded in showing the dependence of the prospects of the interrelations of the CIS member-states on the level of correlation of various interests in the integrational projects underway; on the scale and speed of the establishment of the system of advantages expected from the implementation of the integrational process.
Summing up the materials reflecting various positions and opinions the authors emphasized that in case the internal integration model fails to emerge, the alternative would be gradual involvement of the CIS member-states into the zone of influence of other geopolitical, financial and economic integration groups, on harder and more humiliating conditions than those offered now within the framework of the Economic Union. The authors remind that the process of drawing together of two sovereign states will entail different political and economic, financial, social, military, diplomatic and information problems.
“The Development of Cultural Relations of Belarus with the Countries of Central and Western Europe (1985—1991)” (Victor Shadursky)
This study looks into the problems of the development of cultural relations of Belarus with the countries of Central and Western Europe in the period of 1985—1991. The article analyses the cultural policy of the party and the government in the late 80s and treats the causes of its change. The internal factors, which are noted as having influenced the liberalization of the official course in the sphere of international cultural contacts, are the spread of Belarusian national movement, the rise of the interest of the young people in foreign art and the increase of the foreign communities’ assistance in Belarus in the elimination of the Chernobyl disaster consequences.
The article describes the contents and the forms of collaboration carried out in literature, cinema, drama, music and painting of Belarus. Specific examples of the contacts of famous art groups and individuals are cited.
“Towards of the Issue of the Borders of Belarus” (Tatiana Pavlova)
Modern history of Belarus has repeatedly witnessed raising of the issue of its ethnic and state borders. The theory of this issue was studied in the beginning of this century by Ye. F. Karsky, the author of prominent studies in linguistics, philology and ethnography. It was he who marked the ethnic borders and drew up the ethnographic map of Belarus.
When the problem of self-determination of Belarus arose under the influence of the revolutionary events of 1917, the issue of ethnic, and later the national, borders came to a head. However, in the beginning the national movement leaders did not agree on national statehood. The liberal-minded people expressed the opinion of the necessity to press for national state autonomy within the Russian Federative Democratic Republic. Liberal parties and organisations did not consider Belarus to be a separate national region but only a territory which had some specific ethnic and cultural features.
February 19, 1918 saw the coming of German troops on the unoccupied territory of Belarus. In this situation the Executive Committee of the First All-Belarusian Congress addressed the people with the First Charter Paper (Gramota) which proclaimed it the Interim Power in Belarus. A government was formed — the People’s Secretariat. On March 9, 1918 the Executive Committee of the Congress adopted the Second Charter Paper which proclaimed the Belarusian People’s Republic. Some figures from Belarusian national movement while proclaiming the establishment of the independent Belarusian state in February of 1918, considered it possible to join the RSFSR as an autonomy, but this became pointless after the Brest peace treaty was concluded. The decision on independence was made official by the Third Charter Paper on March 25, 1918. This Charter Paper also stated that BPR should be extended over the territories where Belarusians live and predominate: the Mogilev area, the Belarusian areas of Minsk region and Grodno region (including Grodno, Byalostok and others), Vilnya region, Vitebsk, Smolensk and Chernigov regions and also the border lands of other neighbouring areas populated by Belarusians. The BPR Rada declared the territory but, naturally, no border demarcation was drawn nor was there any border service.
In the end of March, 1918 the BPR Rada meeting set up an International Affairs Commission which, among other objectives, was to work at charting the borders of the Republic. In May of the same year the so-called Strategic Commission was established at the People’s Secretariat of Foreign Affairs which worked at the detailed and precise description of the borders of the Belarusian People’s Republic. A special commission at the People’s Secretariat of International Affairs was also working together with the strategic commission. But the extremely hard external and internal situation did not promote the commission’s work, so there were few developments. The final variant of the map of the Republic was to be based by the decision of the BPR’s government on the work of both commissions (the Strategic one and the Special one at the People’s Secretariat).
The map, however, was not published before 1919 in Grodno, occupied by Poland (the BPR’s government emigrated in December, 1918). The archives retained also some sketchy description of the borders of Belarus made by a group of Rada and People’s Secretariat members (which included such well-known figures of Belarusian national movement as Ya. Voronko, V. Zakharko, A. Tsvikevich, Ya. Sereda). It is published in the article. The borders here practically coincide with the borders proposed by Professor Karsky in his work “The Ethnographic Map of the Belarusian People” and also with the German maps which appeared in Minsk in March 1918.
It should be noted that the ethnographic borders marked by the BPR’s leaders corresponded most fully to the census data of 1897 and to the ethnographic maps drawn both in Russia and abroad at the turn of the century. They were scientifically based on a set of criteria which took into consideration not only the census data but also the peculiarities of the language, traditions and customs of the people and drew on the data of the anthropology, archaeology and toponymy of the territory.
The BPR’s government repeatedly tried to argue the borders of Belarus both before the neighbours and the world community. But the complicated political situation in Europe and within Belarus did not permit the BPR’s initiators to put into practice the ethnic borders of the Republic. But their efforts were not in vain. They can be credited with the achievement of the fact that the borders of the first Soviet state on the territory of Belarus practically completely coincided with the ethnic borders of Belarus as marked by the leading figures of the BPR.
“The Main Trends of Export and Import Development of Foreign Countries” (Ludmila Petrovskaya, Pavel Shipuk)
The article “The Main Trends of Export and Import Development of Foreign Countries” points out that export and import flows of goods and services are one of the indicators of the development level of any country. Export and import of goods can be shown both on macroeconomic and microeconomic levels.
When it comes to macroeconomic development, every country strives to export as much as it can, with the import staying within the exports profit which is determined in economics as the export-import function. A country’s export grows in accordance with the other countries’ national income increase and the import increases due to the growth of its own national income.
Alongside with the macroeconomic approach to the export-import development there is the microeconomic one. One of the essential indicators for the study of international trade markets is the demand for import, the analysis of which can produce the strategy for integration into the target country. It is also important to determine the specific goods export-import demand. The article gives statistics on export-import operations of foreign countries.
“Towards the Enterprise Location Selection Abroad” (Oleg Anissko, Alexey Danilchenko)
The article “Towards the Enterprise Location Selection Abroad” considers the external and internal factors which guide the selection of enterprise locations by the German automobile manufacturers in their direct foreign investment in East European states. The analysis presented in the article is based of the original sociological questionnaires of German manufacturing companies. Such important external factors of location selection abroad as the economic situation and political legal norms of East European countries are analysed in detail. The article considers as internal for locating the automobile assembly production abroad such factors as internal firm-specific advantages of the investing companies which estimate the readiness and potential of automobile companies for direct foreign investment. In its conclusion the article explores the trends and priorities of capital investment in East European countries by the main automobile producers based in Germany.
"Regulations of Modern International Migration and Peculiarities of Its Regulation” (Valentina Migas, Alexandra Nechai)
The article “Regulations of Modern International Migration and Peculiarities of Its Regulation” is devoted to the analysis of general regulations and issues of modern international migration. It presents information and analysis of international migration according to the types and separate regions. A special focus is given to the formation of a system of state measures at the national level on regulation of external labour migration. The article attempts to identify the rational elements of the regulation which can be applied to the migration policy of the Republic of Belarus. The article contains conclusions on the necessity of the consideration of the global problem of international migration and of the correlation of migration policies not only on the bilateral level. The article also supplies information and identifies some problems of current illegal migration including the situation in the Republic of Belarus.
While exploring the manifold impact of import and export of labour force on the countries-”donors” and host-countries the article focuses on the fact that several branches of the economy of western states are in dependence on import of the labour force and in the majority of states migrants are considered as a certain stock-absorber in case of crisis and unemployment. Besides, the industrial states try to keep the pensions and social programmes on a certain level in the conditions of the low birth-rate and reduction of a number of the employed with the help of immigrants. When considering the system of state measures on regulation of the external labour migration, the article concentrates on the trend of quantitative restrictions of immigrants, on the establishment of labour immigration limitations on the profession, qualification, sex and age basis and the duration of residence in the country. An agency has been set up within the OBCD to monitor international migration. It coordinates the activities of national immigration bodies of the member-states.
“Genesis of the Theories of Currency Exchange Rates” (Olga Kirvel)
The article explores the genesis of exchange rates. It points out the reasons for the increased interest in the given problems in the 70-s of the XX century and also seeks to provide deep theoretical pre-requisites for modern uncoordinated theories. The object of the theories of currency exchange rates is the flexible equilibrium rate as an economic category.
The initial point for the genesis is regarded to be its Keynesian theory interpretation in the original model of Mandell-Fleming (M-F). It deduces an equation of equilibrium flexible currency rate where it is a positive function from the national income and a negative function from the interest rate. The conclusion is made that the increase of national output will lead to the depreciation of national currency and the growth of national interest rates will lead to the currency price rise.
The further theory development goes on as its drawbacks are revealed, i. e. the inadequate behaviour of the exchange rate due to the change in these or those variables showing the balance of payment. One of the limitations of the Keynesian theory is the simplification of the function of capital flows. In its new variant capital inflow is increasing not only after the growth of the national interest rate but also due to the growth of national income. If the effect of the income influence on the capital flows is supposed to predominate, then its growth will cause not the depreciation of the currency as in the M-F model, but the rise of the money price level. Extension of the model in this direction was made by Helliwell in 1969.
The next drawback is a presupposition of fixed salary and prices in the short-time period. It means that it is necessary to introduce a pre-requisite of the equilibrium of prices and salaries to carry out the middle-term analysis. Thus, are can deduce an equation of the real currency exchange rate provided the existing balance of payment. This fact provides the grounds for the conclusion that the change of real exchange rate during the change of the nominal rate depends on the level of reaction of national prices, i. e. nominal depreciation will not always lead to real depreciation. The introduction of the equilibrium of prices and salaries into the theory of the exchange rate can be found in the works of Argy and Salope (1979) and also in the work of Dornbush (1983).