Legal status of Caspian Sea – problem solved?

Abstract

The Caspian Sea is the largest lake in the world very rich inter alia in oil and gas deposits. Practically until 2018, its legal status was not uniform, and was based on the aspirations of individual states and the rules of its use were initially regulated in peace treaties. The key factor for further development in this region was to determine the legal status of the basin.In this article, the author presents attempts to regulate the legal status of the Caspian Sea from historical perspective. The main research hypothesis in this study is that even today – despite international treaty regarding this basin – its legal status is unclear. It should be pointed out that in the event that the Caspian Sea would be treated as a sea, the legal regime of the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea should apply to it (with all its freedoms - even to a third parties). However, if it would be agreed that it is a lake - then the dispute would only concern delimitation of the state border on general principles in border treaties, and only between coastal states (customary law). After analysis of literature, and after 2018 the “definition problem” is marginal. Nevertheless, it should be stressed out that author in this study focuses on analysis of the individual provisions of the 2018 Convention in relation to the UNCLOS to see even if the two acts are comparable, and what definitions were used to describe the Caspian Sea regime.In the conclusions the author draw attention that despite many similarities between these two legal regimes, unanswered questions still remain (due to some gaps in the treaty) which the jurisprudence will have to deal in near future.