Analysis and reflections on the resolution(?) Of the dispute over the status and use of the Silala waters by the International Court of Justice

Abstract

This article provides an analysis of the decision of the International Court of Justice in the case concerning the status and use of the waters of the Silala between Chile and Bolivia. It examines the background of the dispute and the contribution of the judgment to the customary law of international watercourses, including its treatment of the concept of international watercourse and the particularities of the Silala, and the clarification — for the first time — of the status of the notification and consultation obligations. It also analyses the argumentation followed by the Court in declaring a good part of the Parties’ petitions without object as a consequence of the consideration that there was a convergence between their positions, issues that could have been overlooked in the judgment, as well as its contribution to the practical articulation of the intervention of the Parties’ experts in disputes with an important scientific and technical content.