ABSTRACT
The jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (hereinafter ‘the Court’ or ‘ICJ’) was based on a Special Agreement signed on 24 May 1986, which amounts to a compromise that settled a pactum de contrahendo duly included in the General Treaty of Peace of 30 October 1980 between El Salvador and Honduras.1 Both countries had foregoing declarations accepting the Court’s jurisdiction according to Article 36.2 of the Statute and were also parties to the Pact of Bogotá.2 In order to prevent that any basis of jurisdiction might enable Honduras to unilaterally demand El Salvador before the ICJ, the latter proceeded to denounce the Pact on 24 November 1973 and then, two days later, to modify its declaration accepting the Court’s jurisdiction according to Article 36.2 of the Statute, thereby including drastic limitations that affected all sorts of territorial disputes.
