The status quo denotes a legal provision used in international law. It means an existing or existing situation at a certain moment (actual or legal), the conservation (or restoration) of which is said.
In particular, we can talk about the situation regarding the borders 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 "position in which." There are the following options that are used more often than others:
- status quo ad praesens (current situation);
- status quo nunc (position in which things are now);
- status quo ante bellum (the situation that existed before the outbreak of the war, which caused any changes);
- status quo post bellum (the situation that prevailed at the end of the war).
The phrase “restore the status quo” means to return to the state of affairs that existed before any specific event occurred, committed by the participants in these events. For example, the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, adopted in 1969, states that if any international treaty becomes invalid or is recognized as having no legal force, any of the parties has the right to demand the restoration of the status quo from the other party to the extent as far as possible. Thus, the parties should eliminate, as far as possible, the consequences of actions that were performed according to the contract, recognized as invalid.
Peace treaties concluded in the French capital by the states party to the anti-Hitler coalition with 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 maintained borders that were relevant on January 1, 1941, and Hungary on 1938.
