Mr. Ben Juratowitch, Solicitor admitted in England and Wales, Freshfields Bruckhaus
Deringer LLP, - 8 -
Mr. Motohiro Maeda, Solicitor admitted in England and Wales, Freshfields Bruckhaus
Deringer LLP,
Mr. Coalter G. Lathrop, Special Adviser, Sovereign Geographic, member of the North
Carolina Bar,
H.E. Mr. Luis Goycoolea, Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Mr. Antonio Correa Olbrich, Counsellor, Embassy of Chile in the Kingdom of the
Netherlands,
Mr. Javier Gorostegui Obanoz, Second Secretary, Embassy of Chile in the Kingdom of the
Netherlands,
Ms Kate Parlett, Solicitor admitted in England and Wales and in Queensland, Australia,
Ms Nienke Grossman, Assistant Professor, University of Baltimore, Maryland, member of
the Bars of Virginia and the District of Columbia,
Ms Alexandra van der Meulen, Avocat à la Cour and member of the Bar of the State of
New York,
Mr. Francisco Abriani, member of the Buenos Aires Bar,
Mr. Paolo Palchetti, Professor of International Law, University of Macerata,
as Advisers;
Mr. Julio Poblete, National Division of Frontiers and Limits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Ms Fiona Bloor, United Kingdom Hydrographic Office,
Mr. Dick Gent, Marine Delimitation Ltd.,
as Technical Advisers,
THE COURT,
composed as above,
after deliberation,
delivers the following Judgment:
1. On 16 January 2008, the Republic of Peru (hereinafter “Peru”) filed in the Registry of the
Court an Application instituting proceedings against the Republic of Chile (hereinafter “Chile”) in
respect of a dispute concerning, on the one hand, “the delimitation of the boundary between the
maritime zones of the two States in the Pacific Ocean, beginning at a point on the coast called
- 9 -
Concordia . . . the terminal point of the land boundary established pursuant to the Treaty . . . of
3 June 1929” and, on the other, the recognition in favour of Peru of a “maritime zone lying within
200 nautical miles of Peru’s coast” and which should thus appertain to it, “but which Chile
considers to be part of the high seas”.
In its Application, Peru seeks to found the jurisdiction of the Court on Article XXXI of the
American Treaty on Pacific Settlement signed on 30 April 1948, officially designated, according to
Article LX thereof, as the “Pact of Bogotá” (hereinafter referred to as such).
2. In accordance with Article 40, paragraph 2, of the Statute of the Court, the Registrar
immediately communicated the Application to the Government of Chile; and, under paragraph 3 of
that Article, all other States entitled to appear before the Court were notified of the Application.
3. Pursuant to the instructions of the Court under Article 43 of the Rules of Court, the
Registrar addressed to States parties to the Pact of Bogotá the notifications provided for in
Article 63, paragraph 1, of the Statute of the Court. In accordance with the provisions of
Article 69, paragraph 3, of the Rules of Court, the Registrar moreover addressed to the
Organization of American States (hereinafter the “OAS”) the notification provided for in
Article 34, paragraph 3, of the Statute of the Court. As provided for in Article 69, paragraph 3, of
the Rules of Court, the Registry transmitted the written pleadings to the OAS and asked that
organization whether or not it intended to furnish observations in writing within the meaning of
that article; the OAS indicated that it did not intend to submit any such observations.
4. On the instructions of the Court, in accordance with the provisions of Article 69,
paragraph 3, of the Rules of Court, the Registrar addressed to the Permanent Commission for the
South Pacific (hereinafter the “CPPS”, from the Spanish acronym for “Comisión Permanente del
Pacífico Sur”) the notification provided for in Article 34, paragraph 3, of the Statute of the Court
with regard to the Declaration on the Maritime Zone, signed by Chile, Ecuador and Peru, in
Santiago on 18 August 1952 (hereinafter the “1952 Santiago Declaration”), and to the Agreement
relating to a Special Maritime Frontier Zone, signed by the same three States in Lima on
4 December 1954 (hereinafter the “1954 Special Maritime Frontier Zone Agreement”). In
response, the CPPS indicated that it did not intend to submit any observations in writing within the
meaning of Article 69, paragraph 3, of the Rules of Court.
5. On the instructions of the Court under Article 43 of the Rules of Court, the Registrar
addressed to Ecuador, as a State party to the 1952 Santiago Declaration and to the 1954 Special
Maritime Frontier Zone Agreement, the notification provided for in Article 63, paragraph 1, of the
Statute of the Court.
6. Since the Court included upon the Bench no judge of the nationality of either of the
Parties, each Party proceeded to exercise the right conferred upon it by Article 31, paragraph 3, of
the Statute to choose a judge ad hoc to sit in the case. Peru chose Mr. Gilbert Guillaume and Chile
Mr. Francisco Orrego Vicuña. - 10 -
7. By an Order dated 31 March 2008, the Court fixed 20 March 2009 as the time-limit for the
filing of the Memorial of Peru and 9 March 2010 as the time-limit for the filing of the
Counter-Memorial of Chile. Those pleadings were duly filed within the time-limits so prescribed.
8. By an Order of 27 April 2010, the Court authorized the submission of a Reply by Peru and
a Rejoinder by Chile, and fixed 9 November 2010 and 11 July 2011 as the respective time-limits
for the filing of those pleadings. The Reply and the Rejoinder were duly filed within the
time-limits thus fixed.
9. Referring to Article 53, paragraph 1, of the Rules of Court, the Governments of Colombia,
Ecuador and Bolivia asked to be furnished with copies of the pleadings and documents annexed in
the case. Having ascertained the views of the Parties pursuant to that same provision, the Court
decided to grant each of these requests. The Registrar duly communicated these decisions to the
said Governments and to the Parties.
10. In accordance with Article 53, paragraph 2, of the Rules of Court, the Court, after having
ascertained the views of the Parties, decided that copies of the pleadings and documents annexed
would be made accessible to the public on the opening of the oral proceedings.
11. Public hearings were held between 3 and 14 December 2012, at which the Court heard
the oral arguments and replies of:
For Peru: H.E. Mr. Allan Wagner,
Mr. Alain Pellet,
Mr. Rodman Bundy,
Mr. Tullio Treves,
Sir Michael Wood,
Mr. Vaughan Lowe.
For Chile: H.E. Mr. Albert van Klaveren Stork,
Mr. Pierre-Marie Dupuy,
Mr. David Colson,
Mr. James Crawford,
Mr. Jan Paulsson,
Mr. Georgios Petrochilos,
Mr. Luigi Condorelli,
Mr. Samuel Wordsworth. - 11 -
12. At the hearings, a Member of the Court put a question to the Parties, to which replies
were given orally in accordance with Article 61, paragraph 4, of the Rules of Court.
*
13. In its Application, the following requests were made by Peru:
“Peru requests the Court to determine the course of the boundary between the
maritime zones of the two States in accordance with international law . . . and to
adjudge and declare that Peru possesses exclusive sovereign rights in the maritime
area situated within the limit of 200 nautical miles from its coast but outside Chile’s
exclusive economic zone or continental shelf.
The Government of Peru, further, reserves its right to supplement, amend or
modify the present Application in the course of the proceedings.”
14. In the written proceedings, the following submissions were presented by the Parties:
On behalf of the Government of Peru,
in the Memorial and in the Reply:
“For the reasons set out [in Peru’s Memorial and Reply], the Republic of Peru
requests the Court to adjudge and declare that:
(1) The delimitation between the respective maritime zones between the Republic of
Peru and the Republic of Chile, is a line starting at ‘Point Concordia’ (defined as
the intersection with the low-water mark of a 10-kilometre radius arc, having as its
centre the first bridge over the River Lluta of the Arica-La Paz railway) and
equidistant from the baselines of both Parties, up to a point situated at a distance of
200 nautical miles from those baselines, and
(2) Beyond the point where the common maritime border ends, Peru is entitled to
exercise exclusive sovereign rights over a maritime area lying out to a distance of
200 nautical miles from its baselines.
The Republic of Peru reserves its right to amend these submissions as the case
may be in the course of the present proceedings.” - 12 -
On behalf of the Government of Chile,
in the Counter-Memorial and in the Rejoinder: