Research and writing is often a solitary endeavour but this study could not have been completed without the encouragement and support of dear friends, colleagues, mentors and libraries. In particular I must express my deepest appreciation to my advisors, Lee Paddock and David Freestone from George Washington University Law School, without whose learned guidance I could not have completed this study. I also thank Dinah Shelton for her insightful comments which enriched this study, Dean Susan Karamanian, and the very helpful librarians at the George Washington Jacob Burns Law Library. I am eternally grateful to the late Gündüz Aybay from whom I learned so much. I also owe much gratitude to my close friends who never lost faith and gave their encouragement and support: in particular Yolande Schumacher, Eddy Lessandrini, Ruth Eastlack, Jill Schlichtmann, Cherie Bobbe, Anna Karydas, Lindy Koll, David Lee, Rob Baine, David Rompf, Joan Markoff and Tineke Sokmen-Vanderloon. I must also thank Harry Scheiber from the University of California Berkeley, Boalt School of Law for his friendship and providing me generous access to library facilities. I also thank Violeta Velikova formerly of the Black Sea Commission Permanent Secretariat for her invaluable insights, and providing me with documents, Ahmet Kideys the former Executive Director of the Black Sea Permanent Secretariat and Irina Makerenko. Additional thanks are owed to Annabeth Rosenbloom formerly of Martinhus Nijhoff and now Senior Legal Officer at the United Nations Division for Oceans Affairs and Law of the Sea for encouraging me years ago to write a book on the Black Sea, and my current editors at Brill, Marie Sheldon and Karen Cullen.