The Process of Formation, Development, and Regulation of the Caspian Sea Shipping Legal Status from Golestan Contract (1228/1813) to the Commercial and Seafarership Contract (1336/1940)

The Caspian Sea has always been a concern of the government and the people of Iran and the local governments of the northern regions of Iran and the Russian groups and government. The effective presence of the Russian political activists since the Qajar period in the region has shown their interest and influence for the benefits of the Caspian Sea. From that time, Iran and Russia have always sought to establish a legal status for the Caspian Sea under various contracts and treaties. The purpose of this research is to analyze how the legal status of shipping in the Caspian Sea is formed from the beginning of Qajar to the end of the first Pahlavi. In this research, due to the historical nature of the subject, based on archival documents, newspapers and historical sources, the descriptive and analytical method have been used to ask this question: «How the legal status of shipping in the Caspian Sea from the beginning of Qajar to the end of Pahlavi first was shaped and explained? Findings and results of this research indicate that the legal status of shipping in the Caspian Sea had formed based on the importance of this sea for residents of the southern regions as well as the Russian people in the wider political and economic dimensions of the Golestan contract in 1228/1813 until the seafarership contracts of treaties of 1336/1940. With the political influence of Russia on the northern waters of Iran, by 1921, Iran only had commercial shipping in the Caspian Sea and did not have the right to use the warship, but from this date the right to maintain and establish a navy in the Caspian Sea was recognized by the State of the Soviet Socialist Republic. Among the provisions of the treaties and privileges of trade and commerce, as well as the seafarership between the two countries, some legal laws related to shipping in the Caspian Sea were taken into consideration by the statesmen and companies affiliated with each other and led to the formation and explanation of a shipping legal status in the Caspian Sea.a.