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Mr. Marcelo Kohen

Mr. Marcelo Kohen
Professor of International Law
Graduate Institute of International
and Development Studies, Geneva
Secretary-General
Institute of International Law

Biography Biography in PDF
Boundary Delimitation
Maritime Delimitation
Uti Possidetis and Maritime Delimitations
At the heart of the problem of the applicability of the principle of uti possidetis iuris to the maritime context is the determination whether newly independent States are bound by the delimitation agreements and unilateral acts conducted by the former colonial powers establishing maritime jurisdiction. A similar problem also arises with respect to States that have been created outside the decolonization process, in cases of separation or dissolution from their predecessor States.

Video | Audio
(21/7/2009, 34 minutes)
Boundary Delimitation
Maritime Delimitation
Uti Possidetis and Maritime Delimitations
Slide Presentation (PDF) PDF document (290 KB)
A. Legal Instruments
Nootka Sound Convention, Agreement between the Kingdom of Spain and the Kingdom of Great Britain, 28 October 1790.

Vienna Convention on Succession of States in Respect of Treaties, Vienna, 23 August 1978, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1946, p. 3.
B. Jurisprudence

Permanent Court of Arbitration, The North Atlantic Coast Fisheries Case (Great Britain, United States), Award of 7 September 1910, Reports of International Arbitral Awards, vol. XI, p. 167.

Permanent Court of Arbitration, Dispute between Argentina and Chile concerning the Beagle Channel, Award of 18 February 1977, Reports of International Arbitral Awards, vol. XXI, p. 53.

International Court of Justice, Aegean Sea Continental Shelf (Greece v. Turkey), Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 1978, p. 3.

International Court of Justice, Continental Shelf (Tunisia/Libyan Arab Jamahiriya),
Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 1982, p. 18.

International Arbitral Tribunal, Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary between Guinea and Guinea-Bissau, Decision of 14 February 1985, Reports of International Arbitral Awards, vol. XIX, pp. 149-196.

International Court of Justice, Arbitral Award of 31 July 1989 (Guinea-Bissau v. Senegal), Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 1991, p. 53.

International Court of Justice, Territorial and Maritime Dispute between Nicaragua and Honduras in the Caribbean Sea (Nicaragua v. Honduras), Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 2007, p. 659.

International Court of Justice, Maritime Delimination in the Black Sea (Romania v. Ukraine), Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 2009, p. 61.


C. Doctrine

D. Bardonnet, “Frontières terrestres et frontières maritimes”, Annuaire français de droit international, 1989, vol. XXXV, pp. 1-64.

M. G. Kohen “L’uti possidetis et les delimitations maritimes”, Liber Amicorum Jean-Pierre Cot: le procès international, Bruxelles, Bruylant, 2009, pp. 155-170.

G. Nesi, “Uti possidetis juris e delimitazioni maritime”, Rivista di diritto internazionale, 1991, vol. LXXIV, pp. 534-570.

Y. Tanaka, “Reflections on Maritime Delimitation in the Nicaragua/Honduras Case”, Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht, vol. 68, 2008, pp. 903-937 (at pp. 907-909).