State borders in international law

Abstract

Assuming the existing rules and their mutual relationship the author of the paper 'State Borders and International Law' makes attempt to identify the basic and general theoretical model of state border. This model should be used as means for resolving border disputes, but also for arranging relations between newly-created states on permanent basis. The legal regime of state borders is characterized by a small number of rules. A whole number of relations resulting from the presence of state borders do not call for, or at this stage of development of the international community, do not make possible creation of general rules, partly due to the unique form of every border, and partly due to lack of necessary and appropriate agreement that would enable them to be established. Among the existing ones, rules of dispositive character prevail, while a number of cogent rules is small. As for the type of relations preponderate are those rule on drawing the state border by common law. In particular regimes rules arranging other relations resulting from neighborhood are considerably on the increase, reaching its climax in individual regimes. The basic and dominant source is an international treaty enabling the interested parties to make an acceptable and appropriately precise agreement that could be changed in the same way as it was made - by approval of the contracting parties. At the general level, as well as of individual and particular models, in choosing relations to be legally arranged and modalities of solutions, agreement between interested parties, primarily neighboring countries obviously prevails over the individual wills of states. This fact points to significant non-legal factors that affect the concept of the state border, they being either objective (e.g. scientific and technological development) or subjective (expressing emotional relationship between the people and territory).