Nicaragua v colombia at the icj: Better the devil you don’t?

Abstract

On 19 November 2012, the ICJ issued its decision in the case Territorial and Maritime Dispute (Nicaragua v Colombia).1 Nicaragua had requested the Court to determine sovereignty over several maritime features in the Caribbean Sea and to carry out a maritime delimitation of the continental shelf between Nicaragua and Colombia. The Court carried out a maritime delimitation unlikely to have been predicted, departing slightly from what had become an expected methodology. The decision was not well received by Colombia. This note briefly outlines the history of the case before analysing some of the issues raised by the decision. It also considers the possible impact of the decision on future maritime delimitation cases and on the role of the ICJ as a jurisdiction for maritime delimitation.