Order of 2 February 2017

2 FÉVRIER 2017

ORDONNANCE

DÉLIMITATION MARITIME DANS LA MER DES CARAÏBES
ET L’OCÉAN PACIFIQUE

(COSTA RICA c. NICARAGUA)

FRONTIÈRE TERRESTRE DANS LA PARTIE SEPTENTRIONALE
D’ISLA PORTILLOS

(COSTA RICA c. NICARAGUA)

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MARITIME DELIMITATION IN THE CARIBBEAN SEA

AND THE PACIFIC OCEAN

(COSTA RICA v. NICARAGUA)

LAND BOUNDARY IN THE NORTHERN PART
OF ISLAPORTILLOS

(COSTA RICA v. NICARAGUA)

2 FEBRUARY 2017

ORDER INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE

YEAR 2017
2017
2 February
General List

Nos. 157 and 165
2 February 2017

MARITIME DELIMITATION IN THE CARIBBEAN SEA
AND THE PACIFIC OCEAN

(COSTA RICA v. NICARAGUA)

LAND BOUNDARY IN THE NORTHERN PART
OF ISLA PORTILLOS

(COSTA RICA v. NICARAGUA)

ORDER

Present: President ABRAHAM ; Vice-PresidentY USUF; Judges OWADA , T OMKA ,
C ANÇADO TRINDADE , REENWOOD , XUE, DONOGHUE , GAJA, EBUTINDE , OBINSON ,

G EVORGIAN ; RegistrarOUVREUR .

The International Court of Justice,

Composed as above,

After deliberation,

Having regard to Article 48 of the Statute of the Court and to Articles 31 and 47 of the Rules
of Court,

Makes the following Order: - 2 -

Whereas:

1. By an Application filed in the Registry of the Court on 25 February 2014, the Republic of
Costa Rica (hereinafter “Costa Rica”) instituted proceedings against the Republic of Nicaragua
(hereinafter “Nicaragua”) with regard to a dispute concerning “the establishment of single maritime
boundaries between the two States in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, respectively,
delimiting all the maritime areas appertaining to each of them, in accordance with the applicable
rules and principles of international law” (hereinafter “the case concerning Maritime
Delimitation”).

2. Pursuant to Article 40, paragraph 2, of the Statute, the Registrar immediately
communicated a signed copy of the Application to the Government of Nicaragua; and, in
accordance with paragraph 3 of that Article, all States entitled to appear before the Court were
notified that the Application had been filed.

3. By an Order dated 1 April 2014, the Court fixed 3 February 2015 and 8 December 2015 as
the respective time-limits for the filing of a Memorial by Costa Rica and a Counter-Memorial by
Nicaragua. The Memorial and the Counter-Memorial were filed within the time-limits thus
prescribed.

4. At a meeting held by the President with the representatives of the Parties on
28 January 2016, the Parties agreed that it was not necessary to file a Reply and a Rejoinder.

5. By letters dated 13 April 2016, the Registrar informed the Parties, pursuant to Article 67,
paragraph 1, of the Rules of Court, that the Court was considering arranging for an expert opinion
in accordance with Articles 48 and 50 of its Statute, entrusted to one or several experts, asking such
experts to collect, by conducting a site visit, all the factual elements relating to the state of the coast
between the point located on the right bank of the San Juan River at its mouth and the land point
closest to Punta de Castilla, as those two points can be identified today.

6. After hearing the Parties, the Court decided, by an Order dated 31 May 2016, that an
expert opinion would be obtained under Articles 48 and 50 of its Statute. It stated that this expert
opinion would be entrusted to two independent experts appointed by Order of the President of the
Court; these experts should visit the site in order to provide the Court with their views on the state
of the coast between the point suggested by Costa Rica and the point suggested by Nicaragua in
their written pleadings as the starting-point of the maritime boundary in the Caribbean Sea.

7. After consulting the Parties, the President of the Court appointed the two experts by an
Order of 16 June 2016.

8. A first site visit took place from 4 to 9 December 2016. - 3 -

9. On 16 January 2017, Costa Rica instituted proceedings against Nicaragua with regard to a

dispute concerning “the precise location of the land boundary separating the Los Portillos/Harbor
Head Lagoon sandbar from Isla Portillos” and the “establishment of a military camp by Nicaragua
on the beach of Isla Portillos” (hereinafter “the case concerning Isla Portillos”).

10. In its Application, Costa Rica requested the Court to join the new proceedings with those
in the case concerning Maritime Delimitation, pursuant to Article 47 of the Rules of Court.

11. In accordance with Article 40, paragraph 2, of the Statute, the Registrar immediately
communicated a signed copy of the said Application to the Government of Nicaragua; and,
pursuant to paragraph 3 of that Article, all States entitled to appear before the Court were notified
that the Application had been filed.

12. At a meeting held by the President with the representatives of the Parties on
26 January 2017, the Parties were invited to make known their Governments’ views both on the

question of time-limits for the filing of pleadings in the case concerning Isla Portillos and on the
appropriateness of joining the proceedings in the latter case with those in the case concerning
Maritime Delimitation.

13. Costa Rica stated that it maintained its request for a joinder of the proceedings, observing
in particular that it was necessary for the Court to settle all of the questions at issue between the
Parties concerning the northern part of Isla Portillos. It was therefore in favour of short time-limits

being granted for the filing of written pleadings in the new proceedings, so as to allow the Court to
deal with both cases in its current composition. To that end, Costa Rica proposed that each Party
be given a time-limit of 45 days, or a maximum of two months, in which to prepare its written
pleading. It further suggested that the experts’ report in the case concerning Maritime Delimitation
should not be communicated to the Parties until after the filing of the written pleadings in the case
concerning Isla Portillos.

14. For its part, Nicaragua stated that in its opinion the conclusions reached by the experts in
the case concerning Maritime Delimitation would be essential to the case concerning Isla Portillos,
and that therefore it would not be logical for Costa Rica to file its Memorial in the second case
before reading the said report. Nicaragua added that it would not be able to comment on the
appropriateness of a joinder or determine the time needed to prepare its Counter-Memorial until it
was in possession of the experts’ report and Costa Rica’s Memorial. It was currently of the view
that, in any event, each Party should be given a time-limit of six months to prepare its written

pleading.

* * - 4 -

15. In light of the information obtained by the President pursuant to Article 31 of the Rules

of Court, and taking into account the nature of the case, the Court considers that the Parties should
each have a period of one month and a half at their disposal, from the filing of the Application, in
which to prepare their respective written pleadings in the case concerning Isla Portillos.

* *

16. With regard to the question of joining the proceedings in the Maritime Delimitation and
the Isla Portillos cases, the Court recalls that, under Article 47 of the Rules, “[t]he Court may at
any time direct that the proceedings in two or more cases be joined”. This provision leaves the
Court a broad margin of discretion. Where the Court, or its predecessor, the Permanent Court of
International Justice, has exercised its power to join proceedings, it has done so in circumstances
where joinder was consonant not only with the principle of the sound administration of justice, but

also with the need for judicial economy (see, for example, Legal Status of the South-Eastern
Territory of Greenland, Order of 2 August 1932, P.C.I.J., Series A/B, No. 48, p. 268; North Sea
Continental Shelf (Federal Republic of Germany/Denmark; Federal Republic of
Germany/Netherlands), Order of 26 April 1968, I.C.J. Reports 1968, p. 9; Certain Activities
carried out by Nicaragua in the Border Area (Costa Rica v. Nicaragua), Joinder of Proceedings,
Order of 17 April 2013, I.C.J. Reports 2013, p. 170, para. 18; Construction of a Road in Costa

Rica along the San Juan River (Nicaragua v. Costa Rica), Joinder of Proceedings, Order of
17 April 2013, I.C.J. Reports 2013, p. 187, para. 12). As the Court has had occasion to recall, any
decision to that effect must be taken in light of the specific circumstances of each case.

17. In the present case, the Court considers that, in view of the claims made by Costa Rica in
the case concerning Isla Portillos and the close link between those claims and certain aspects of the

dispute in the case concerning Maritime Delimitation, the proceedings in the two cases should be
joined. Such a joinder will allow the Court to address simultaneously the totality of the various
interrelated and contested issues raised by the Parties, including any questions of fact or law that
are common to the disputes presented.

*

* *

18. For these reasons,

T HE COURT ,

(1) Fixes the following time-limits for the filing of written pleadings in the case concerning
the Land Boundary in the Northern Part of Isla Portillos (Costa Rica v. Nicaragua):

2 March 2017 for the Memorial of the Republic of Costa Rica;

18 April 2017 for the Counter-Memorial of the Republic of Nicaragua; - 5 -

(2) Decides to join the proceedings in the cases concerning Maritime Delimitation in the

Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean (Costa Rica v. Nicaragua) and the Land Boundary in the
Northern Part of Isla Portillos (Costa Rica v. Nicaragua);

(3) Reserves the subsequent procedure for further decision.

Done in French and in English, the French text being authoritative, at the Peace Palace, The
Hague, this second day of February, two thousand and seventeen, in three copies, one of which will
be placed in the archives of the Court and the others transmitted to the Government of the Republic
of Costa Rica and the Government of the Republic of Nicaragua, respectively.

(Signed) Ronny A BRAHAM ,
President.

(Signed) Philippe C OUVREUR ,
Registrar.

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