ICJ Agrees to Hear Bolivian Coastal Dispute

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest court for the settlement of disputes between states, has declared itself competent to hear a suit over the coastal dispute between Bolivia and Chile. The subject of this dispute is 400 kilometers of coast seized from Bolivia by Chile during the War of the Pacific in the 1880s. After the issue left tensions simmering for over a century, Bolivia, led by populist President Evo Morales, filed suit at the ICJ in 2013, alleging that the 1904 treaty officializing the land transfer was signed under duress. Since this treaty, Bolivia has been landlocked; a fact that many, Morales included, point to as a reason for  Bolivia’s lack of economic development.

Bolivia hopes that the Court will compel the two countries to negotiate Bolivian coastal access in good faith.

The ICJ’s decision elicited celebration in Bolivia and optimism from the country’s government, and projector screens were put up around La Paz to broadcast the decision to citizens directly. Hector Arce, Bolivia’s attorney general, went so far as to claim that this ruling undermines Chile’s primary defense against Bolivia’s insistence that the matter fell outside of the Court’s jurisdiction.

Bringing the long-simmering conflict with Chile back to the forefront has been a major rhetorical point for President Evo Morales. For its part, Chile has pumped the brakes on any coup for Bolivian coastal access, with President Michelle Bachelet reminding the press that this is only a procedural vote and offers no insight into the eventual outside of the case. According to Bachelet, “Bolivia has earned nothing.” For now, this remains true.