Ukraine and Russia: 'You Break It, You Bought It'
Journal: SSRN Electronic Journal
Year: 2014

The drama in Ukraine has occupied global headlines for many months now and — while there are occasional signs that things are calming down — the overall picture is not pretty for any of the parties involved. It did not have to be this way. Even assuming that Crimea was inevitably going to end up a part of Russia, international law could have facilitated a peaceful transfer that would have helped align the parties’ interests rather than putting them at odds. The mechanism for this is what we call