Decision of the Court of Cassation, VI Criminal Section, No. 14237 of 23 March 2017

In this judgment, the Court of Cassation ruled that the Republic of Mauritius could not invoke the 1873 Convention between the United Kingdom and Italy for the mutual surrender of fugitive criminals as a successor state. For the Court, it is a customary rule of international law that the succession of states in respect of treaties is not automatic (so-called tabula rasa principle, enshrined in the 1978 Vienna Convention). This conclusion did not change because of the declaration of the Republic of Mauritius that it will consider binding upon it a number of bilateral treaties concluded by the UK, including the mentioned Convention of 1873, because no express or tacit manifestation of same will has ever come by Italy.