Borders

Page 3 of 4

Filter category

Feature post image

The Doctrine of Intertemporal Law and the Challenge of Decolonising the Law on Territorial and Boundary Issues in Africa: Gabon/Equatorial Guinea at the ICJ

July 8, 2025

Introduction On 19 May 2025, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered judgment in Land and Maritime Delimitation and Sovereignty over Islands (Gabon/Equatorial Guinea). The Court relied on a 1900 boundary treaty between the Parties’ former colonial powers, as well as administrative and legal acts of those powers, as valid and relevant sources of law, but rejected the “Bata Convention” signed by the Parties in 1974 as invalid (see judgment ¶¶98,156 & 198). In a Separate Opinion, Judge Yusuf criticised the Court’s continued use of colonial-era legal doctrines and instruments to settle African territorial and maritime disputes.  In his view, such doctrines or instruments, often invoked together with uti possidetis juris are obsolete and problematic and should no longer apply in such matters.

Read more

AG Ćapeta’s Western Sahara Opinions: Undermining the Law of Decolonization

May 14, 2024

The law on decolonization has two primary objectives: transfer power from colonizer to people in accordance with their will and protect the people until that happens. On 21 March 2024, Advocate General Ćapeta delivered three linked opinions at the European Court of Justice that seriously undermine these objectives. The cases concern EU trade agreements with Morocco purporting to…

Read more

What does the ‘hybrid attack’ carried out by Belarus against the EU borders mean in reality? An international law perspective

December 13, 2021

In reaction to the fraudulent 2020 Belarusian presidential elections and violent suppression of oppositionists by the State apparatus, the European Union imposed sanctions on Belarus, including a travel ban and an asset freeze. After the forced landing of a Ryanair plane in Minsk, it also prohibited various aircraft operated by Belarusian airlines from taking off…

Read more

At Daggers Drawn: International Legal Issues Surrounding the Conflict in and around Nagorno-Karabakh

November 17, 2020

On 10 November, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a Statement with the Russian Federation that fundamentally changes the scope of the conflict concerning Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding territories as well the status of the so-called “Republic of Artsakh” that had declared independence in early 1992. Even if it remains to be seen whether…

Read more

The Monetary Gold Doctrine and the ICC: Can the ICC determine the Territorial Boundaries of Israel and Palestine?

June 16, 2020

The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been engaged in a Preliminary Examination of the situation in Palestine since January 2015. By December 2019, the Prosecutor had come to the conclusion that there is a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes have been, or are being, committed on territory of Palestine, and that the other…

Read more