In
international law, a
condominium (plural either
condominia, as in Latin, or condominiums) is a political territory (state or border area) in or over which two or more sovereign powers formally agree to share equally
dominium (in the sense of sovereignty) and exercise their rights jointly, without dividing it up into 'national' zones.
Although a condominium has always been recognized as a theoretical possibility, condominiums have been rare in practice. A major problem, and the reason why so few have existed in practice, is the difficulty of ensuring co-operation between the sovereign powers; once the understanding fails, the status is likely to become untenable.
The word is recorded in English since c.1714, from Modern Latin, apparently coined in Germany c.1700 from Latin com- "together" + dominium "right of ownership" (compare domain).
The term is sometimes even applied to a similar arrangement between members of a Monarch's countries in (personal or formal) union, as was the case for the district of Fiume (Rijeka), shared between Hungary and Croatia within the Hapsburg Empire since 1868.
