Territorial and Maritime Dispute (Nicaragua v. Colombia) - Proceedings on whether to grant Costa Rica's application for permission to intervene Conclusion of the public hearings - the Court to begin i

INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE

Peace Palace, Carnegieplein 2, 2517 KJ The Hague, Netherlands
Tel.: +31 (0)70 302 2323 Fax: +31 (0)70 364 9928
Website: www.icj-cij.org

Press Release
Unofficial

No. 2010/33
15 October 2010

Territorial and Maritime Dispute (Nicaragua v. Colombia)

Proceedings on whether to grant Costa Rica’s application for permission to intervene

Conclusion of the public hearings; the Court to begin its deliberation

THE HAGUE, 15 October 2010. The public hearings on whether to grant Costa Rica’s
application for permission to intervene in the case concerning the Territorial and Maritime Dispute

(Nicaragua v. Colombia) were concluded today. The Court will now begin its deliberation.

During the hearings, which opened on Monday 11 October 2010 at the Peace Palace, seat of
the Court, the delegation of Costa Rica was led by H.E. Mr. Edgar Ugalde Álvarez, Ambassador of
the Republic of Costa Rica to the Republic of Colombia, as Agent; the delegation of Nicaragua
was led by H.E. Mr. Carlos José Argüello Gómez, Ambassador of the Republic of Nicaragua to the

Kingdom of the Netherlands, as Agent and Counse l; and the delegation of Colombia was led by
H.E. Mr. Julio Londoño Paredes, Professor of International Relations, Universidad del Rosario,
Bogotá, as Agent.

The Court’s decision on whether to grant Co sta Rica’s application to intervene will be

delivered at a public sitting, the date of which will be announced in due course.

Submissions of Costa Rica and of the Parties

At the end of the hearings, the Agents of Costa Rica and of the Parties presented the

following submissions to the Court:

For Costa Rica:

“On behalf of the Republic of Costa Rica, I should like to restate the remedy which my
Government requests from the Court in this intervention.

We seek the application of the provisions of Article 85 of the Rules of Court, namely:

⎯ Paragraph 1: ‘the intervening State shall be supplied with copies of the pleadings and
documents annexed and shall be entitled to submit a written statement within a time-limit to be

fixed by the Court’, and;

⎯ Paragraph 3: ‘The intervening State shall be en titled, in the course of the oral proceedings, to
submit its observations with respect to the subject-matter of the intervention.’” - 2 -

For Nicaragua:

“In accordance with Article 60 of the Rules of Court and having regard to the application for
permission to intervene filed by the Republic of Costa Rica and oral pleadings, the Republic of
Nicaragua respectfully submits that:

The application filed by the Republic of Cost a Rica fails to comply with the requirements
established by the Statute and the Rules of C ourt, namely, Article 62, and paragraph 2, (a) and (b)
of Article 81 respectively.”

For Colombia:

“In light of the considerations stated during these proceedings, my Government wishes to
reiterate what it stated in the Written Observations it submitted to the Court, to the effect that, in
Colombia’s view, Costa Rica has satisfied the requirements of Article62 of the Statute and,

consequently, that Colombia does not object to Co sta Rica’s request for permission to intervene in
the present case as a non-party.”

___________

The verbatim records of the hearings held between 11 and 15 October 2010 are available on
the Court’s website (www.icj-cij.org).

Public hearings on whether to grant the a pplication for permission to intervene filed by
Honduras in the same case will be held between 18 and 22 October 2010.

___________

Information Department:

Mr. Andrey Poskakukhin, First Secretary of the Court, Head of Department (+31 (0)70 302 2336)
Mr. Boris Heim, Information Officer (+31 (0)70 302 2337)
Ms Joanne Moore, Associate Information Officer (+31 (0)70 302 2394)
Ms Genoveva Madurga, Administrative Assistant (+31 (0)70 302 2396)