Report of the International Committee of Jurists Entrusted by the Council of the League of Nations with the Task of Giving an Advisory Opinion upon the Legal Aspects of the Aaland Islands Question
The International Committee of Jurists of the Council of the League of Nations
League of Nations Official Journal, Special Supp. No. 3 (1920)
After World War I, new nations, including Finland (defendant), were created with borders meant to reflect national self-determination, but new minority groups within these countries soon pressed their own self-determination claims. The Aaland Islands (plaintiff), a group of islands between Finland and Sweden populated almost entirely by ethnic Swedes, wanted to unite with Sweden rather than remain part of Finland, which Finland refused to recognize. The Council of the League of Nations created the International Committee of Jurists to decide whether the League could weigh in on the dispute or whether it fell entirely within Finland's own domestic jurisdiction.
Whether, under international law, the implications of a country's transition from a de facto nation to a de jure nation are solely within the domestic jurisdiction of that country.