Forthcoming in the Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law (27) becomes stateless because of the change of sovereignty. Alternatively, nationality is to be conferred on individuals who would otherwise become stateless as a result of territorial transfers. Though more incremented than the first drafts elaborated by the International Law Commission, the 1961 Convention managed to break new ground while preserving the ethos of the ILC’s draft convention. As such, the work of the Commission on the prevention and reduction of statelessness may be one of its most successful projects in the field of international migration law. In the end, its ‘success’ was in part the result of a careful balance between the recognition of states’ freedom in matters of nationality and the establishment of negotiated obligations qualifying, but not totally limiting, said discretion. The elaboration of two draft conventions with different approaches also shows how the eradication of statelessness was as easy to achieve in theory as it was politically divisive in practice. B. The Right to a Nationality and the Avoidance of Statelessness in the Law of State Succession If the ILC had already codified important aspects of the law of state succession,64 especially in respect of treaties65 and later in relation to state property, archives, and debts, 66 the end of the Cold War and the wave of disappearance and dissolution of states that followed brought the issue back to the Commission’s agenda. 67 This time, however, the ILC was called upon to study In fact, the ‘Succession of States and Government’ was also included by the ILC in its initial list of topics suitable for codification. See UN ILC, ‘Summary Records and Documents of the First Session’, at 37–39. 65 UN ILC, ‘Draft Articles on Succession of States in Respect of Treaties, with Commentaries’ in Yearbook of the International Law Commission 1974, vol. II (Part One) UN Doc. A/CN.4/SER.A/1974/Add.1. 66 UN ILC, ‘Draft Articles on Succession of States in Respect of State Property, Archives and Debts, with Commentaries’ in Yearbook of the International Law Commission 1981, vol. II (Part Two) UN Doc. A/CN.4/SER.A/1981/Add.l. 67 UNGA Res. 48/31, ‘Resolution Adopted by the General Assembly on the Report of the Sixth Committee (A/48/612)’ (24 January 1994), at 3. 64 18 Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4816199