Condominium (international law)

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In international law, a condominium is a political territory (state or border area) in or over which two or more sovereign powers formally agree to share equally dominium (in the sense of sovereignty) and exercise their rights jointly, without dividing it up into 'national' zones.

Although a condominium has always been recognised as a theoretical possibility, condominiums have been rare in practice. A major problem, and the reason why so few have existed in practice, is the difficulty of ensuring co-operation between the sovereign powers; once the understanding fails, the status is likely to become intenable.

1 Western condominiums
2 Co-principality
3 Colonial condominiums
4 See also
5 Sources and references

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Western condominiums

Cyprus was shared for over three hundred years between the Byzantine emperor and the caliph.
The Oregon Country was an Anglo-American condominium from 1818 until 1846
Neutral Moresnet was shared from 1816 until 1919 between The Netherlands (later Belgium) and Prussia (later Germany).
Maastricht was a condominium *
the Countship of (West) Friesland, since 1165 under Imperial administration, was 1165 - 1493 a Joint condominium of the Count of Holland and the Prince-bishop of Utrecht, then again till 25 October 1555 under Imperial administration...
Northern Dobruja *
The main part of Lake Constance (without islands) is a condominium shared between Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

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Co-principality

Under French law, Andorra was once considered to be a French–Spanish condominium, although it is more commonly classed as a co-principality.
Island of "Los faisanes" in the River Bidasoa between France and Spain.

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Colonial condominiums

For our purposes, the term colonial is taken very wide.

The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan was a British–Egyptian condominium until 1956.
The Canton and Enderbury Islands were a British–American condominium from 1939 until 1979 when they became part of Kiribati.
The New Hebrides formed a French–British condominium until independence in 1980 as a republic, now called Vanuatu
Sakhalin ...
from 26 August 1914 under British and French occupation, the German protectorate (a colony since 1905) of Togoland was an Anglo-French condominium until its partition on 27 December 1916 into French and British zones, which were transformed on 20 July 1922 into two separate League of Nations mandates, British and French Togolands, in present Togo.