ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses legal aspects of the resolution of the conflict around the Aland Islands between Sweden and Finland, specifically its settlement by the League of Nations, concentrating on the stronger points of the involvement of universal international organizations in the context of conflict resolution. Such features of the settlement as the establishment of specific commissions, their inquiries and opinions and the value of the informed decision based on facts and scholarly opinion are discussed in the context of international law implementation. Three different periods of modern history are important to understanding the importance of the Aland Islands. The first period is that of Swedish rule over the islands that stretched from 1157 and to 1809. The second period is that of Russian rule between 1809 and 1917, and the third period is Finland’s sovereignty over the Aland Islands from 1917 up to the present.
