ABSTRACT
Figure 10.1 The Danube international shipping regime in the twentieth century 109 Figure 10.2 The international regime protecting the Rhine against pollution 111 Figure 10.3 The international administration of Tangier 1923-56 114
Free navigation on the Danube
Like the Congress of Vienna, the Congress of Paris, which ended the Crimean War in 1856, dealt with the free navigation of rivers, this time the Danube. As Turkey controlled its middle and lower courses but had not been party to the Congress of Vienna, no agreement about this river had been made. Austria had been granted the right to navigate the middle and lower Danube in an Austro-Turkish treaty of 1616, while by a treaty of 1774 Russia was allowed to navigate the lower Danube. In the nineteenth century, Austrian and Russian control increased as Turkish influence waned. An AngloAustrian and a Russo-Austrian convention of, respectively, 1838 and 1840 promoted free navigation along the entire river. The Russian defeat in the Crimea presented another opportunity to further free navigation of the Danube. Articles 15-19 of the Treaty of Paris regulated the traffic. Article 15 linked directly to the principles and rules laid down at Vienna, by stipulating that ‘those principles shall in future be applied to the Danube and its mouths’. The signatories declared that ‘this arrangement henceforth forms a part of the public law of Europe and take it under their guarantee’. The remaining articles dealt with the removal of tolls and tariffs and it was stated that, except for police and quarantine regulations, ‘no obstacle whatever shall be opposed to free navigation’ (cited in Lyons 1963, 59).
