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Arbitral Award of Oct. 3, 1899 (Guy. v. Venez.) (Decision on Jurisdiction) (I.C.J.)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2021

Brendan Plant
Brendan Plant*
Affiliation:
Brendan Plant is Hopkins-Parry Fellow in Law at Downing College and Fellow of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. He is a pupil barrister at Twenty Essex chambers in London.
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Extract

On December 18, 2020, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) handed down its decision on the jurisdiction of the Court in the case concerning the Arbitral Award of 3 October 1899 (Guyana v. Venezuela). By a 14–2 majority, the Court ruled that it has jurisdiction to decide certain elements of the application submitted unilaterally by Guyana against Venezuela, while it concluded unanimously that it lacks jurisdiction over other aspects of Guyana's application. Having established jurisdiction over certain elements of Guyana's application, the ICJ will now proceed to hear the merits of the claims.

Type
International Legal Documents
Information
International Legal Materials , Volume 60 , Issue 6 , December 2021 , pp. 1112 - 1162
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The American Society of International Law

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Footnotes

Endnote 16 has been corrected since original publication. A separate notice detailing this change has also been published (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/ilm.2022.16).

References

ENDNOTES

1 Award regarding the Boundary between the Colony of British Guiana and the United States of Venezuela, October 3, 1899, RIAA, vol. XXVIII, pp. 331–40.

2 Severo Mallet-Prevost, Memorandum Left with Judge Schoenrich Not to be Made Public Except at His Discretion after My Death (1949) 43 A.J.I.L. 528–30.

3 Agreement to resolve the controversy over the frontier between Venezuela and British Guiana, signed at Geneva on February 17, 1966, U.N.T.S. No. 8192.

4 Arbitral Award of 3 Oct. 3, 1899 (Guy. v. Venez.), Judgment on Jurisdiction (Dec. 18, 2020), ¶¶ 23–28.

5 Id., ¶¶ 64–65.

6 Id., ¶ 74.

7 Id., ¶ 99.

8 Id., ¶ 86.

9 Id., ¶ 113.

10 Id., ¶ 115.

11 Id., ¶¶ 135–36.

12 Id., ¶ 137.

13 News reports indicate that officials from the United States and Bahamas have expressed support. For the United States, see: US supports ICJ's decision to settle Guyana-Venezuela border dispute, Jamaica Observer (Jan. 12, 2021), https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/us-supports-icj-s-decision-to-settle-guyana-venezuela-border-dispute_211915?profile=1031; for the Bahamas, see: Bahamas supports Guyana in border controversy with Venezuela, Guyana Chronicle (Jan. 18, 2021), https://guyanachronicle.com/2021/01/18/bahamas-supports-guyana-in-border-controversy-with-venezuela.

14 See http://mppre.gob.ve/comunicado/venezuela-reafirma-cij-reconoce-jurisdiccion-controversia-guayana-esequiba.

15 Dissenting Opinion of Judge Abraham, ¶ 17; Dissenting Opinion of Judge Bennouna, ¶ 11.

16 Simón Gómez and Moisés A. Montiel Mogollón, A Commentary on the Arbitral Award of 3 October 1899 (Guyana v. Venezuela) jurisdiction ruling: The road to hell is paved with good intentions, Opinio Juris (Feb. 19, 2021), http://opiniojuris.org/2021/02/19/a-commentary-on-the-arbitral-award-of-3-october-1899-guyana-v-venezuela-jurisdiction-ruling-the-road-to-hell-is-paved-with-good-intentions.

17 This was established in Decree No. 4.415, published in the Official Gazette No. 42.046, dated January 13, 2021, http://www.mppre.gob.ve/en/2021/01/07/president-maduro-venezuelan-atlantic-front.

18 Caricom concerned about Venezuela's plan to establish territory in disputed region of Guyana, Jamaica Observer (Jan. 12, 2021), https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/Caricom_concerned_about_Venezuelas_plan_to_establish_territory?profile=0.

19 Organization of American States, Statement from OAS General Secretariat on Illegal Detention of Guyanese Vessels by Venezuela (Jan. 27, 2021), https://www.oas.org/en/media_center/press_release.asp?sCodigo=E-004/21.