Volume 5-10 Abstract


	View Full Article

	The Caspian Sea Dispute: The Role of International Law by Cesare P.R. Romano Cesare P. R. Romano received the "Laurea" from the Università Statale di Milano; Diplôme d'études supérieures (D.E.S.) and Ph.D. from the Graduate Institute of International Studies (IUHEI), Geneva; LL.M. from the New York University, School of Law. He is Associate Director of the Project on International Courts and Tribunals (PICT) for the Center on International Cooperation, New York University. [Please, note that this article is a slightly condensed and revised version of a similar article to be published in the forthcoming book Ascher, W. / Mirovitskaya, N. (2000), The Caspian Sea: A Quest for Environmental Security, Kluwer, London. The book contains the proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop, held in Venice, Italy, on March 15-19, 1999.] Until the demise of the USSR the Caspian rarely made it to the headlines. For much of the twentieth century it had been the exclusive domain of Iran and the Soviet Union. The USSR enjoyed a de facto control of much of the Caspian and complete naval dominance, while Iran did not, nor realistically could, contest the supremacy of its powerful northern neighbor. Because of this situation, the two states never felt the urge to codify in a treaty the Caspian's legal regime nor to establish precisely the territorial extension and nature of their respective rights. On December 8, 1991, the Soviet Union, as a single subject of international law, disappeared to be replaced by the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose diplomatic caucus. Overnight the number of sovereign states around the Caspian rose to five, each advancing contrasting legal claims on parts or the whole of it. Since then, the issue of how far from the coast and what legal rights Caspian states enjoy turned from a mere footnote in international law manuals into a tangled international dispute with a multi-billion dollar stake. Under the Caspian lie vast oil and gas reservoirs. Some have been exploited since the nineteenth century, many more are believed to have great potential. Go to top of page