Maritime Dispute (Peru v. Chile) - Conclusion of the public hearings - Court to begin its deliberation

INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE

2012/37 No.
2012 December 14

THE HAGUE, 14December2012. The public
Maritime Dispute (Peru v. Chile) were concluded today. The Court will now begin its deliberation.

During the hearings, which opened on Monday 3 December 2012 at the Peace Palace, seat of

the Court, the delegation of the Republic of Peru was led by H.E. Mr. Allan Wagner, Ambassador,
former Minister for Foreign Affairs, former Minist er of Defence, former Secretary-General of the
Andean Community, Ambassador of Peru to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, as Agent; and the
delegation of the Republic of Chile was led by H. E. Mr. Albert van Klaveren Stork, Ambassador,
former Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, Professor at the University of Chile, as Agent.

The Court’s Judgment will be rendered at a
announced in due course.

Final submissions of the Parties

At the end of the oral proceedings, the Par ties presented the following final submissions to
the Court:

For the Republic of Peru:

“For the reasons set out in Peru’s Memorial and Reply and during the oral
proceedings, the Republic of Peru requests the Court to adjudge and declare that:

(1) The delimitation between the respective maritime zones between the Republic of
Peru and the Republic of Chile, is a line st arting at ‘Point Concordia’ (defined as

the intersection with the low-water mark of a 10-kilometre radius arc, having as its
centre the first bridge over the River Lluta of the Arica-La Paz railway) and
equidistant from the baselines of both Parties, up to a point situated at a distance of
200 nautical miles from those baselines, and

(2) Beyond the point where the common maritime border ends, Peru is entitled to

exercise exclusive sovereign rights over a maritime area lying out to a distance of
200 nautical miles from its baselines.” - 2 -

For the Republic of Chile:

“Chile respectfully requests the Court to:

(a) dismiss Peru’s claims in their entirety;

(b) adjudge and declare that:

(i) the respective maritime zone entitleme nts of Chile and Peru have been fully
delimited by agreement;

(ii) those maritime zone entitlements are delimited by a boundary following the
parallel of latitude passing through the most seaward boundary marker of the
land boundary between Chile and Peru , known as Hito No.1, having a
latitude of 18° 21' 00" S under WGS84 Datum; and

(iii) Peru has no entitlement to any maritime zone extending to the south of that
parallel.”

*

Internal Judicial Practice of the Court with respect to deliberations

Deliberations take place in private in accord ance with the following procedure: the Court
first holds a preliminary discussion, during whic h the President outlines the issues which require

discussion and decision by the Court. Each judge then prepares a written Note setting out his or
her views on the case. Each Note is distributed to the other judges. A full deliberation is then held,
at the end of which, on the basis of the views expressed, a drafting committee is chosen by secret
ballot. That committee consists in principle of tw o judges holding the majority view of the Court,

together with the President, unless it appears that his views are in the minority. The committee
prepares a draft text, which is first the subjectof written amendments and then goes through two
readings. In the meantime, judges who wish to do so may prepare a declaration, a separate opinion
or a dissenting opinion. The final vote is taken afte r adoption of the final text of the Judgment at

the second reading.

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Note: The Court’s press releases do not constitute official documents. The complete

verbatim records of the hearings held from 3 to 14 December 2012 are published on the website of
the Court (www.icj-cij.org).

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The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations.

It was established by the United Nations Char ter in June1945 and began its activities in
April1946. The seat of the Court is at the Peace Palace in The Hague (Netherlands). Of the six
principal organs of the United Nations, it is the only one not located in New York. The Court has a
twofold role: first, to settle, in accordance with in ternational law, legal disputes submitted to it by

States (its judgments have binding force and are without appeal for the parties concerned); and, - 3 -

second, to give advisory opinions on legal questi ons referred to it by duly authorized United
Nations organs and agencies of the system. The Court is composed of 15judges elected for a

nine-year term by the General Assembly and the Security Council of the United Nations.
Independent of the United Nations Secretariat, it is assisted by a Registry, its own international
secretariat, whose activities are both judicial and diplomatic, as well as administrative. The official
languages of the Court are French and English. Also known as the “World Court”, it is the only

court of a universal character with general jurisdiction.

The ICJ, a court open only to States for cont entious proceedings, and to certain organs and
institutions of the United Nations system for advisory proceedings, should not be confused with the

other ⎯ mostly criminal ⎯ judicial institutions based in The Hague and adjacent areas, such as the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yu goslavia (ICTY, an adhoc court created by the
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court, established by treaty, which does not bel ong to the United Nations system), the Special
Tribunal for Lebanon (STL, an independent judicial body composed of Lebanese and international
judges, which is not a United Nations tribunal an d does not form part of the Lebanese judicial
system), or the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA, an independent institution which assists in

the establishment of arbitral tribunals and fac ilitates their work, in acco rdance with the Hague
Convention of 1899).

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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)