Der Berliner Kongress (1878) . Ein südosteuropäischer Meilenstein in der Geschichte des modernen Völkerrechts
The Congress of Berlin (1878).A Southeast-European Milestone in the Modern History of International Law

Summary/Abstract: The article reflects on the significance of the Congress of Berlin in 1878 for the development of international law. As a result of the efforts to reduce the potential for conflicts in Southeastern Europe, a number of international law innovations were initiated. For the first time, the recognition of a new state was subject to preconditions. This conditionality did not refer to existing or absent state characteristics (e. g. territory, people, state authority), as it does today, but concerned the guarantee and protection of minority rights. In direct relation to this conditionality, the Ottoman Empire and the newly founded states of Serbia and Romania as well as territorially enlarged sovereign nation states in Southeastern Europe (e. g. Greece) committed themselves to innovative minority protection regulations. Finally, the Russian war declaration against the Ottoman Empire sparked international law debates on the right to intervene on the basis of (what some critics called) “allegedly” humanitarian grounds.

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