In turn, this was taken to imply the need for a new all-German constitution voted into effect by a unified nation under the terms of Article 146 of the Basic Law as the successor to the Federal Republic; with the further implication the actions of the former GDR might be nullified. In the event the unification of 1990 was initiated under the quicker process of Article 23, by which existing German states could declare their accession to the Basic Law of the Federal Republic, through the decision of free representative democratic institutions. This process implicitly confirmed both the continuing sovereign status of the Federal Republic under the Basic Law, and also the de facto and de jure legal capabilities of the political institutions of the former East Germany, both in declaring accession to the Basic Law and in having previously exercised government over its population and represented them in international law; subject to extensive qualification post-1990 in categorising the former GDR as an 'injustice state' whose population could claim redress (and be subject to penalties) in respect of actions before 1990 that had been inconsistent with the principles of Human Rights, as these had been incorporated into East German public law.[37]