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Straddling villages in international judicial border dispute settlement – an equitable outcome?

Gierow, Sofia LU (2022) LAGF03 20221
Department of Law
Faculty of Law
Abstract
The purpose of this thesis is to look at a small part of jurisprudence from the International Court of Justice to examine the intersection of public international law with considerations of local populations in border delimitations. This thesis is a legal doctrinal study of public international law. The materials that are studied are customary law, case law from the International Court of Justice and general principles of international law. In settling the boundary dispute between Cameroon and Nigeria in 2002 the Court drew the border through two villages, Turu and Kotcha. The overarching research question for this thesis is whether there is an alternative interpretation of the applicable legal norms that could have yielded a different... (More)
The purpose of this thesis is to look at a small part of jurisprudence from the International Court of Justice to examine the intersection of public international law with considerations of local populations in border delimitations. This thesis is a legal doctrinal study of public international law. The materials that are studied are customary law, case law from the International Court of Justice and general principles of international law. In settling the boundary dispute between Cameroon and Nigeria in 2002 the Court drew the border through two villages, Turu and Kotcha. The overarching research question for this thesis is whether there is an alternative interpretation of the applicable legal norms that could have yielded a different outcom. The first sub-question is what legal norms are applied in connection to the straddling villages in Cameroon v. Nigeria, and the second is how considerations of equity infra legem have been used in the settlement of other frontier disputes. The analysis shows that the legal norms of relevance in Cameroon v. Nigeria are customary law of treaty interpretation, and the Court adopts a textual method for interpretation. Regarding equity infra legem, the Court has previously expressly rejected the use of considerations of equity to modify colonial border treaties. However, equity infra legem has been used implicitly in a later case by the Court to interpret another colonial treaty to better suit the needs of the local population. In conclusion, the use of equity in these situations is not entirely clear, and referencing it to keep Turu and Kotcha intact would most likely have been controversial. (Less)
Abstract (Swedish)
Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka skärningspunkten mellan vissa folkrättsliga principer och lokalbefolkningens intressen i mellanstatliga gränstvister. Undersökningen är rättsdogmatisk och materialet som undersöks är internationella rättskällor i form av sedvanerätt, rättspraxis från Internationella domstolen och allmänna folkrättsliga principer. I en gränstvist mellan Kamerun och Nigeria som avgjordes i Internationella domstolen 2002 drogs gränsen genom två byar, Turu och Kotcha, och delade dem därmed på mitten. Den huvudsakliga frågan som den här uppsatsen syftar till att besvara är huruvida det finns alternativa tolkningar av de tillämpliga normerna som hade kunnat ge upphov till ett annat resultat. Den första delfrågan är... (More)
Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka skärningspunkten mellan vissa folkrättsliga principer och lokalbefolkningens intressen i mellanstatliga gränstvister. Undersökningen är rättsdogmatisk och materialet som undersöks är internationella rättskällor i form av sedvanerätt, rättspraxis från Internationella domstolen och allmänna folkrättsliga principer. I en gränstvist mellan Kamerun och Nigeria som avgjordes i Internationella domstolen 2002 drogs gränsen genom två byar, Turu och Kotcha, och delade dem därmed på mitten. Den huvudsakliga frågan som den här uppsatsen syftar till att besvara är huruvida det finns alternativa tolkningar av de tillämpliga normerna som hade kunnat ge upphov till ett annat resultat. Den första delfrågan är vilka rättsliga normer som domstolen tillämpar i relation till byarna. Den andra delfrågan är hur principen equity infra legem har använts vid tolkning av rättsliga normer i andra gränstvister inför domstolen. Analysen visar att domstolen tillämpar en sedvanerättslig textnära tolkningsmetod i sin läsning av traktatet. Vad gäller equity infra legem så har domstolen i ett tidigare rättsfall tagit tydlig ställning mot att använda sig av principen för att modifiera koloniala gränstraktater så att den bättre stämmer med situationen på marken idag. I ett senare fall har dock domstolen implicit använt sig av principen för att åstadkomma en tolkning som bäst passar lokalbefolkningens behov. Slutsatsen är att det går att diskutera vilken roll equity infra legem och lokalbefolkningens behov i allmänhet har att spela inom folkrätten när det gäller gränsdragning. Det hade sannolikt varit kontroversiellt för domstolen att dra gränsen runt hellre än genom Turu och Kotcha och därmed avvika från traktattexterna. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Gierow, Sofia LU
supervisor
organization
course
LAGF03 20221
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
public international law, dispute settlement, equity, straddling villages, international court of justice, border disputes, border delimitiation
language
English
id
9081052
date added to LUP
2022-06-28 09:27:43
date last changed
2022-06-28 09:27:43
@misc{9081052,
  abstract     = {{The purpose of this thesis is to look at a small part of jurisprudence from the International Court of Justice to examine the intersection of public international law with considerations of local populations in border delimitations. This thesis is a legal doctrinal study of public international law. The materials that are studied are customary law, case law from the International Court of Justice and general principles of international law. In settling the boundary dispute between Cameroon and Nigeria in 2002 the Court drew the border through two villages, Turu and Kotcha. The overarching research question for this thesis is whether there is an alternative interpretation of the applicable legal norms that could have yielded a different outcom. The first sub-question is what legal norms are applied in connection to the straddling villages in Cameroon v. Nigeria, and the second is how considerations of equity infra legem have been used in the settlement of other frontier disputes. The analysis shows that the legal norms of relevance in Cameroon v. Nigeria are customary law of treaty interpretation, and the Court adopts a textual method for interpretation. Regarding equity infra legem, the Court has previously expressly rejected the use of considerations of equity to modify colonial border treaties. However, equity infra legem has been used implicitly in a later case by the Court to interpret another colonial treaty to better suit the needs of the local population. In conclusion, the use of equity in these situations is not entirely clear, and referencing it to keep Turu and Kotcha intact would most likely have been controversial.}},
  author       = {{Gierow, Sofia}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Straddling villages in international judicial border dispute settlement – an equitable outcome?}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}