Legal status of international and internal waterways

The emblematic Wimbledon case decided by the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ) in 1923 still provokes debate on multiple legal matters. This Chapter examines the contemporary international regime of waterways, tracing its inception to the Wimbledon judgment and exploring whether including a broader array of waterways in an international regime with analogous regulation can be justified. To address judicial and scholarly attempts to theorize the existence of a unified legal regime on international waterways, the author explains the notion of international waterways, the concept of canal internationalization, and the problem of objective legal regimes. Multiple examples bolster the legal analysis, especially regarding the three main interoceanic canals of Kiel, Suez, and Panama. In conclusion, the author states that even though the analyzed scenarios do not support the existence of a unified international regime of waterways, the Wimbledon judgment marked a starting point in the development of the common framework for them and acts as a cornerstone for the concept of the objective legal regime.