Reference no: EM132300718
You work in the legal department of BTS Energy, an oilfield services firm based in Houston, Texas. BTS has offices around the world. Recently, BTS decided to open a new office abroad. One of the sites they are considering is in an area designated on some maps as the Republic of Akhazia and on other maps as a province in the country of Georgia.
The Republic of Abkhazia is a partially recognized republic on the eastern coast of the Black Sea in northwestern Georgia. It covers 3,340 square miles and has a population of around 240,000. Its capital is Sukhumi and it is recognized as a state by only five countries: Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru and Syria. While Georgia lacks control over Abkhazia, the Georgian government and most United Nations member states consider Abkhazia to be legally part of Georgia. The Georgian Parliament has declared Abkhazia to be a Georgian territory occupied by Russians.
Your boss, Roseanne Park, has heard of your success in your international law class. To assist in making the decision about where to locate, she asks you to prepare a memorandum on the status of the Republic of Abkhazia. She has several preliminary questions:
Is the Republic of Abkhazia a state?
What is a state?
Where did the idea of statehood come from?