Option of Nationality in Soviet Treaty Practice, 1917–1924

In: American journal of international law: AJIL, Band 55, Heft 4, S. 919-946

Abstract

Option of nationality in its various forms
played an important rôle in the international law
and diplomacy of the second half of the nineteenth
century and the first quarter of the twentieth.
The concept undoubtedly reached a peak in
popularity and demand in connection with the
territorial settlements arising from the first
World War, only to fall into disuse in subsequent
years. The heyday of the idea of option in general
international law and relations in the years
following 1918 also coincided with the high point
of the usage of the principle in Soviet diplomatic
practice. Indeed, perhaps in the diplomatic
repertoire of no other nation was option of
nationality as frequently resorted to in this or
any other comparable period as in the Soviet
treaty arrangements of 1917–1924. Option in all
its various juridical expressions occupied from
the very first an extremely important place in the
legal and political acts of the Soviet regime in
its search for a modus
vivendi with Russia's neighbors.
What is more, the experience of these first years
firmly established option as an active and
operative principle of Soviet foreign policy, in
which capacity it has remained until the very
present, whereas in the rest of the international
community option has but rarely been revived since
World War I.