ICJ Renders Merits Judgment in Waters of Silala Case (Chile v. Bolivia)

ICJ Renders Merits Judgment in Waters of Silala Case (Chile v. Bolivia)
Source © Hans/Pixabay, 2016.

1-12-2022

Alice Versini-O’Donnell 

International Justice and Human Rights Researcher

Global Human Rights Defence

On December 1st, 2022, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered its Judgment in the case concerning the Dispute over the Status and Use of the Waters of the Silala (Chile v. Bolivia).

The Silala river has its source in Bolivia and crosses the border into Chile. Historically, both States have granted concessions for the use of the Silala waters, but Bolivian local authorities revoked and annulled a concession in 1997, accusing Chile of illegally exploiting the waters of the Silala without compensating Bolivia. Chile then instituted proceedings before the ICJ on June 6th, 2016. 

The ICJ Judgement found the majority of the claims made by Chile in their submission to no longer have any object, and the Court therefore did not render a decision on them. This was also the result of the Bolivian counterclaims, as most of the points in dispute were found to have disappeared in the course of the proceedings. Judge Charleworth in her dissent noted the requirement for the existence of a dispute, and argued that the Court’s Judgment in this case did not explain whether the disappearance of a dispute deprives the Court of its jurisdiction or renders the application inadmissible. 

Sources and further reading: 

International Court of Justice, Press Release ‘Dispute over the Status and Use of the waters of the Silala (Chile v. Bolivia), The Court delivers its Judgment on the merits of the case, including the counter-claims of Bolivia’ (1 December 2022) 2022/68. 

International Court of Justice, Summary, ‘Dispute over the Status and Use of the Waters of the Silala (Chile v. Bolivia), Summary of the Judgment of 1 December 2022’ (1 December 2022) 2022/5. 

International Court of Justice, Dispute over the Status and Use of the Waters of the Silala (Chile v. Bolivia) (Judgment) 1 December 2022.