The status quo denotes a legal position used in international law. It means a position existing or existing at a certain moment (actual or legal), the preservation (or restoration) of which is said.
In particular, we can talk about the situation regarding the boundaries of the territorial possessions of the state, the correlation of certain forces, the existence of certain international organizations.
The concept comes from the Latin status quo, which literally means "the position in which". There are the following options that are used more often than others:
- status quo ad praesens (current situation);
- status quo nunc (the position in which things are now);
- status quo ante bellum (a situation that existed before the start of the war, which caused any changes);
- status quo post bellum (the situation that developed after the end of the war).
The phrase "to restore the status quo" means to return to the state of affairs that existed before any particular event occurred by the participants in these events. For example, the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties states that if an international treaty becomes invalid or is recognized as having no legal force, any of the parties has the right to demand that the other party restore the status quo to the extent that as far as possible. Thus, the parties must eliminate, as far as possible, the consequences of actions that were committed in accordance with the invalidated contract.
The peace treaties concluded in the French capital by the states participating in the anti-Hitler coalition with the states that were satellites of Nazi Germany in 1947, territorial issues were resolved in accordance with the status quo ante bellum with only a few exceptions. Thus, Finland and Bulgaria retained the borders that were relevant on January 1, 1941, and Hungary - for 1938.
