Uti possidetis juris

Uti possidetis juris or uti possidetis iuris is a principle of international law that states that newly formed sovereign states should have the same borders that their preceding dependent area had before their independence.

History

Uti possidetis juris is a modified form of uti possidetis; created for the purpose of avoiding terra nullius, the original version of uti possidetis began as a Roman law governing the rightful possession of property. During the medieval period it evolved into a law governing international relations and has recently been modified for situations of newly independent states.

Application

Uti possidetis juris has been applied to in modern history such regions as South America, Africa, Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union, and numerous other regions of where centralized governments were broken up, or where imperial rulers were overthrown. It is often applied to prevent foreign intervention by eliminating any contested terra nullius, or no man's land, that foreign powers could claim.

Success

The application of uti possidetis juris has had mixed success as it often ignores ethnic and political differences in and between regions. This has led to conflicts, and war crimes like those committed in the former Yugoslavia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan and elsewhere.

See also

• Uti possidetis

References

• Shaw, Malcolm N. (1997). "Peoples, Territorialism and Boundaries." European Journal of International Law 8 (3).

• Hensel, Paul R.; Michael E. Allison and Ahmed Khanani (2006). "Territorial Integrity Treaties, Uti Possidetis, and Armed Conflict over Territory." Presented at the Shambaugh Conference "Building Synergies: Institutions and Cooperation in World Politics," University of Iowa, 13 October 2006.