The Role of Foreign Legal ‘Experts’ of the Romanian State in the Optants Question (1922–1930)

Abstract The Optants Question, a transnational dispute in Central and Eastern Europe after World War I, has contributed to a more straightforward definition of the science of international law and demonstrated and reinforced the significance of specialized journals in addition to experts. All countries directly involved in this controversy have used the expertise of government specialists and independent foreign experts. At least at the beginning, the Little Entente states argued that the optants issue did not fall under the jurisdiction of international institutions. Therefore, their primary objectives were to ensure full sovereignty, legitimize their governments, gain recognition for the new world order created after World War I, and ensure that the Peace Treaties remained untouched. My research aims to analyze the goals pursued (in different stages) by the Romanian State when hiring foreign ‘experts,’ what kind of consultants were desired, financial agreements, the objectives of this tactic, and its consequences.