The Border Monster Refuses to Die

Abstract

Abstract The author contextualizes the Final Award issued on 29 June 2017 by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on the Slovenian-Croatian border dispute, a dispute which began in 1991 when the two Yugoslav republics became independent states. After joining the European Union in 2004, Slovenia began to use its membership to attempt to force its neighbour to agree to its terms. In November 2009 the two countries signed an Arbitration Agreement that temporarily solved the problem. The Final Award of the Court of Arbitration in The Hague of June 2017 has not been acknowledged by Croatia, though, on the ground of an audio surveillance scandal in 2015 that involved a Slovenian arbitrator. The Slovenian side has advocated the Final Award of the Tribunal as the only legal, internationally binding, and “European” solution to the border question, while the Croatian side continues to ignore the tribunal’s disposition.