Trucco-or-Treat. The Jugdment of the International Court of Justice of 1 October 2018 in case Obligation to Negotiate Access to the Pacific Ocean (Bolivia V. Chile)

Abstract

The award of the International Court of Justice of October October 1 2018 has ruled in Chile’s favour on the question of whether Chile should be given an obligation to negotiate with Bolivia for its sovereign access to the Pacific Ocean. The refusal to recognize the existence of this obligation has been made after the analysis of a considerable amount of acts, declarations and behaviours of the parties - bilateral agreements, unilateral declarations, acquiescence, estoppel, etc -, with the constant result of denying the possibility that Chile's intention to commit has emerged. The work of the Court gives rise to criticism, since it has been an exercise in formalism and voluntarism, which has ignored, as plausibly shows dissenting opinions, the crystallizing effect of the aforementioned obligation in some of the episodes of Chilean and Bolivian practice.