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III. The International Court of Justice
2. THE JURISDICTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE
2.2. Conditions for a Decision on the Merits
2.2.4. Admissibility

¤ Land and Maritime Boundary
between Cameroon and Nigeria,
Preliminary Objections, Judgment,
I.C.J. Reports 1998, p. 275

[pp. 319-321] 103. In its seventh preliminary objection Nigeria contends that there is no legal dispute concerning delimitation of the maritime boundary between the two Parties which is at the present time appropriate for resolution by the Court.

106. The Court will initially address the first argument presented by Nigeria. The Court accepts that it will be difficult if not impossible to determine the delimitation of the maritime boundary between the Parties as long as the title over the Peninsula of Bakassi has not been determined. The Court notes, however, that Cameroon's Application not only requests the Court

"to proceed to prolong the course of its maritime boundary with the Federal Republic of Nigeria up to the limit of the maritime zones which international law places under their respective jurisdictions" (Application of Cameroon of 29 March 1994, p. 15, para. 20 (f)),

but also,

"to adjudge and declare:

(a) that sovereignty over the Peninsula of Bakassi is Cameroonian, by virtue of international law, and that that Peninsula is an integral part of the territory of Cameroon" (ibid., para. 20).

Since, therefore, both questions are before the Court, it becomes a matter for the Court to arrange the order in which it addresses the issues in such a way that it can deal substantively with each of them. That is a matter which lies within the Courts discretion and which cannot be the basis of a preliminary objection. This argument therefore has to be dismissed.