ABSTRACT
In the 2007 Judgment of the Territorial and Maritime Dispute between Nicaragua and Honduras in the Caribbean Sea (Nicaragua v. Honduras),1
the International Court of Justice (hereinafter the ‘Court’) determined the single maritime boundary dividing the territorial sea, continental shelf and exclusive economic zones of the parties by applying the angle-bisector method, which had not been used by the Court since the mid-1980s.2 While the equidistance method provided in Article 15 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (hereinafter ‘UNCLOS’)3 is a general rule in the delimitation of the territorial sea,4 the angle-bisector method proved to be ‘a viable substitute method’ when drawing an equidistance line is not possible or appropriate due to ‘special circumstances’.5 The Court referred to the unstable and changing nature of the mouth of the River Coco and stated that accretion caused by sediments carried to sea by the river ‘might render any equidistance line so constructed today arbitrary and unreasonable in the near future’.6 The Court thus clarified that it does not automatically apply the equidistance method to all cases. Furthermore, Nicaragua v. Honduras involved the question of sover-
eignty over islands located in disputed maritime areas, which was an issue
raised by Nicaragua during the oral hearings. Based on evidence supporting post-colonial effectivités, the Court confirmed that the islands belonged to Honduras, and that it had a right to establish a territorial sea of 12 NM from the islands.7 The Court delimited the maritime boundary by enclaving the islands in the Nicaraguan exclusive economic zone. While some have argued that Nicaragua v. Honduras was a departure
from earlier jurisprudence of the Court, others view the judgment as consistent with it.8 The differences in opinion indicate that the Court’s jurisprudence on maritime delimitation has not gained objectivity. However, Nicaragua v. Honduras helped clarify the Court’s jurisprudence on methods of maritime delimitation. This chapter provides an overview of the 2007 Judgment and discusses its contribution to the development of international law as well as its implications to state practice in Latin America.
