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Preliminary Reflections on the ICJ Decision in the Dispute between Chile and Bolivia Over the Status and Use of the Waters of the Silala

December 8, 2022

Francesco Sindico

Laura Movilla Pateiro

Gabriel Eckstein

Chile and Bolivia, for the past six years, have engaged in a dispute before the International Court of Justice over the waters of the Silala. On 01 December 2022 the Court released its decision. This summary highlights some key facts and the outcome of the case, and raises a number of preliminary questions that the case presents about general international law and the law of international watercourses. Background The Silala waters originate in Bolivia near its border with Chile, at an altitude of 4000 metres. This is one of the driest parts of the planet and home to unique mountain wetlands known as bofedales. In 1928, the Silala was heavily canalized on the Bolivian side of the border. According to Chile, this was done to address water quality concerns. Bolivia argued that the purpose was to enhance the quantity of Silala water flowing downstream. At the heart of the dispute is the…

Ashraf Ghani’s ambitions to divert the Helmand River now serve his enemy, the Taliban: an International Law perspective

July 13, 2022

Mohsen Nagheeby

One tragedy follows another in Afghanistan. Occurring amid many other dramatic events, the diversion of the Helmand (Hirmand) River, which flows through Afghanistan and Iran, by the Taliban in January 2022 was almost lost in the news. This deliberate act can cause huge economic losses, degrade entire ecosystems, and threaten the lives of those dependent upon its waters.

Germany’s Trusteeship over Gazprom Germania: A Brewing Expropriation Claim?

June 6, 2022

Martin Jarrett

Background If it were not so serious, it would be funny: In March 2022, the part-time DJ and fledgling YouTuber Dmitry Tseplyaev (purportedly) became the ultimate controller of Gazprom’s gas-distribution network and gas-storage facilities in Germany. The German authorities did not see any humour in this situation. On 4 April 2022, they imposed…

Splashing down the International Space Station in the Pacific Ocean: Safe Disposal or Trashing the Ocean Commons?

February 23, 2022

Vito De Lucia

The International Space Station (ISS) is reaching its end of life and will need to be disposed of. NASA plans to do so by de-orbiting the ISS and sinking it into a particular area of the Pacific Ocean known as Point Nemo (named after Captain Nemo, the famous character in the novel Twenty Thousand Leagues…

Risky business: Uniper’s potential investor-state dispute against the Dutch coal ban

March 18, 2020

Dr. Pekka Niemelä

Harro van Asselt

Kati Kulovesi

Dr Mikko Rajavuori

In pursuit of the ambitious long-term goals of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius and preferably to 1.5 degrees from pre-industrial times, various European countries have decided to phase out coal. While such policies are necessary to tackle climate change – after all, coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel…

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