Case Study on the Dispute concerning Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary between Mauritius and Maldives in the Indian Ocean, Preliminary Objection, 28 January 2021

Abstract

On 28 January 2021, the ITLOS Special Chamber delivered the judgment of preliminary objection in the case of the dispute concerning delimitation of the maritime boundary between Mauritius and Maldives in the Indian Ocean. The Special Chamber overruled five objections on the jurisdiction and admissibility raised by Maldives. This case is a kind of the dispute case related with the sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago, so-called mixed dispute. The Special Chamber took the same approach with previous precedents of the same kinds. Actually it did not focused on the how far the submission of the maritime delimitation is related with the sovereignty dispute, but on the nature of the dispute, whether it is the sovereignty dispute or not. Different from a doctrinal approach, taken by the judical academics who decided the case following the standard how much the submission is mixed with the sovereignty dispute, the jurisprudence including the judgement of the Special Chamber targeted the nature, a sovereignty dispute or not. The Special Chamber suggested the concrete and detailed meaning of the legal authority, not a legal binding force, of the ICJ advisory opinion. It is shown that the adjacent or opponent states of maritime delimitation of this case is Mauritius under the special circumstances of unfinished and continuing decolonization process. Afterwards the final judgment of the maritime delimitation will indicates the coastal State is Mauritius who can exercise the right over fishery and natural resources in the delimited maritime area. Plus the role of international judicial body has been being strengthened in the decolonization process. For the work of the CLCS, it would be Mauritius which submit the document over the continental shelf over 200 nm from the base points of the Chagos archipelago.