Ethiopia and Italy deadlocked over legalism versus ethnic factors in the frontier.

Evidence

The main issue was that, while Ethiopia insisted that the frontier should be determined on the basis of a strictly legalistic interpretation of the 1908 Italo-Ethiopian Convention, Italy maintained that other international agreements should also be taken into account as well as ethnic factors relating to the distribution of different Somali clans in the disputed area. The Italian position thus favoured a more liberal interpretation in the direction of Somali national aspirations. — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 457

Categorization

• XREF: The 1908 convention echoes the earlier Italo-Ethiopian treaty history from the pre-colonial chapters. — connects to: Ethiopian raids on Lugh drove Italy to press for frontier definition — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 254

Related

• Ethiopian raids on Lugh drove Italy to press for frontier definition (similarity 0.85)
• Ethiopia was unwilling to resolve the Somali Region conflict in 1968 (similarity 0.80)
• Somali irredentism threatened the sanctity of colonial African frontiers (similarity 0.78)