1,303 articles
Austrian State Treaty
The Austrian State Treaty, signed in Vienna on 15 May 1955, ended the four-power occupation of Austria and re-established it as a sovereign, independent, and democratic state.
Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1878–1918: occupation mandated by the 1878 Berlin Congress, annexation in 1908, Joint Finance Ministry administration, the Kállay era, and the 1910 Statute.
Baekdu Mountain Boundary Monument
The Baekdu Mountain Boundary Monument (백두산정계비), also called the Mukedeng stele, was a stone marker erected in 1712 recording the Joseon–Qing border at Baekdu Mountain; it vanished in 1931.
Bangladesh–India border
The Bangladesh–India border, also called the India–Bangladesh frontier, is the 4,096 km land boundary created by the 1947 Radcliffe Award, settled in key respects by the 1974 and 2015 Land Boundary Agreements and the 2014 maritime arbitration.
Base erosion and profit shifting
Base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) is multinational tax avoidance via profit shifting to low-tax jurisdictions, addressed by the OECD/G20 BEPS Project, its 15-action 2015 package, the Inclusive Framework, and the Two-Pillar global minimum tax.
Basel Convention
The Basel Convention (1989, in force 1992) is the main global treaty controlling transboundary movements of hazardous and other wastes, using prior informed consent; 191 parties, with Ban, plastic waste (2021), and e-waste (2025) amendments.
Battle of Mauropotamos
Battle of Mauropotamos (Μάχη τοῦ Μαυροποτάμου), 844 Byzantine defeat by the Abbasids in Asia Minor; Theoktistos commanded against Amr and Abu Said; site disputed between Bithynia and Cappadocia.
Belovezha Accords (Беловежские соглашения)
Belovezha Accords (Беловежские соглашения), signed December 8, 1991 by Yeltsin, Kravchuk, and Shushkevich at Viskuli, Belarus, declared the USSR defunct and created the CIS.
Bering Sea agreements between the United States and the Soviet Union/Russia
The Bering Sea agreements are two US–Soviet/Russian instruments defining the maritime boundary: the 1867 Alaska purchase convention and the 1990 Maritime Boundary Agreement, applied but never ratified by Russia.
Berlin Conference
Berlin Conference (Berliner Kongo-Konferenz), 15 Nov 1884–26 Feb 1885: 14 states under Bismarck signed the General Act of Berlin, setting Congo basin free trade, navigation, and effective occupation rules; it drew no African borders and excluded African representation.
Bermuda Agreement
The Bermuda Agreement (Bermuda I), signed by the UK and US at Bermuda on 11 February 1946, was the bilateral air services agreement establishing the Bermuda Principles: capacity by ex post facto review and IATA-administered, doubly approved tariffs. It became the model for most later bilateral air transport agreements and was replaced by Bermuda II in 1977.
Bermuda II Agreement
Bermuda II Agreement: 1977 US-UK bilateral air transport agreement, also called the 1977 Air Services Agreement, replacing Bermuda I; restricted Heathrow access to four designated carriers and fares, until superseded by the 2007 EU-US Open Skies agreement.
Bernard Loder
Bernard Loder was a Dutch jurist who helped draft the Statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice and served as its first president, from 1922 to 1924.
Berne Convention
Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1886), the foundational international copyright treaty administered by WIPO: national treatment, automatic protection, independence of protection, 50-year minimum term, three-step test, 182 members.
Bessarabian question
Bessarabian question: the Romania–Soviet dispute over Bessarabia, from the 1918 Sfatul Țării union vote and the 1920 Treaty of Paris (never fully ratified; Japan withheld) to the 1940 Soviet ultimatum and annexation.
Bilateral treaties of Australia
Bilateral treaties of Australia: two-party international agreements concluded under the Constitution's section 61 executive power, covering FTAs, BITs, defense alliances (ANZUS, PNG, Fiji), and social security and extradition treaties.
Bilateral treaties of the Hawaiian Kingdom
Bilateral treaties of the Hawaiian Kingdom: nineteenth-century friendship, commerce, navigation, and reciprocity agreements with the United States, Britain, France, Japan, and others, concluded 1826–1893 and terminated or disputed after the 1898 U.S. annexation.
Bilateral treaty
Bilateral treaty: an international agreement between two subjects of international law with treaty-making capacity, also called a two-party treaty or accord. Most UN-registered treaties are bilateral; governed by the 1969 Vienna Convention, usually a signed instrument or exchange of notes.
Bill of lading
Bill of lading (B/L), the core maritime carriage document: goods receipt, evidence of the contract of carriage, and document of title. Covers straight, order, charterparty, and electronic (eBL) forms under the Hamburg Rules, MLETR, and trade finance use.
Bin Cheng
Bin Cheng (郑斌, 1921–2019) was a Chinese-born British international lawyer, UCL Professor of Air and Space Law, author of General Principles of Law (1953) and Studies in International Space Law (1997), and originator of the instant custom theory.
Biopiracy
Biopiracy: misappropriation of genetic resources and traditional knowledge without consent or compensation, often via patents. Also called unauthorised access. Key cases: turmeric, neem; frameworks: CBD, Nagoya Protocol, Cali Fund.
Blue Shield International
Blue Shield International (BSI) is the international arm of the Blue Shield, an NGO founded in 1996 by ICA, ICOM, ICOMOS, and IFLA to protect cultural heritage in armed conflict and disasters, named for the 1954 Hague Convention's blue shield emblem, with ICRC, UNESCO, and NATO partnerships.
Bonne of Bourbon
Bonne of Bourbon (Bonne de Bourbon, 1341–1403), Bourbon princess, daughter of Pierre I and Isabelle de Valois; married Amédée VI of Savoy by the 1355 Treaty of Paris and governed Savoy as regent for about thirty years.
Borders of Israel
Borders of Israel: the country's boundaries with Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the Palestinian territories. Key lines are the 1949 Green Line armistice lines, treaty borders with Egypt (1979) and Jordan (1994), the UN Blue Line with Lebanon, and the 1974 Syria ceasefire line.
Bosnian Crisis
Bosnian Crisis (Annexation Crisis), 1908-1909: Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina, occupied since the 1878 Treaty of Berlin, against a Straits deal with Russia; Serbia and Montenegro mobilized, and the crisis became a step toward the July Crisis of 1914.
Boundary Treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina
Boundary of Chile and Argentina 1881 (Tratado de Límites) is a 1881 treaty that settled border disputes and defined the frontier along the Andes at 52° S.
Boxer Protocol
Boxer Protocol (Xinchou Treaty), signed at Peking September 7, 1901, ended the Boxer Uprising: 450 million tael indemnity at 4% over 40 years, legation guards, punishments, and later US remissions funding education.
Breach and termination of guaranteed neutrality
Breach and termination of guaranteed neutrality: how treaty-guaranteed neutralized states (Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg) were violated, notably by Germany in 1914 and 1940, and how Belgian neutrality was formally abrogated under Versailles Article 31 and Locarno.
British Columbia Treaty Process
British Columbia Treaty Process: the made-in-BC, six-stage tripartite negotiation framework (First Nations, Canada, BC) established in 1992 and overseen by the BC Treaty Commission, producing modern treaties such as Tsawwassen, Maa-nulth, and Tla'amin.
British Hong Kong (英属香港)
British Hong Kong (英属香港): Crown colony of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and the New Territories, 1841–1997, acquired by the Treaty of Nanking, Convention of Peking, and 1898 99-year lease; returned to China 1 July 1997 under the Joint Declaration.