World Court Digest

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III.	The International Court of Justice
3.	THE PROCEDURE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE
3.4.	The Submissions / Scope of the Dispute

¤ Case Concerning Maritime
Delimitation and Territorial
Question between Qatar and
Bahrain (Qatar v. Bahrain)
Judgment of 16 March 2001

[pp. 96-97] 183. With regard to Bahrain's claim that it is entitled to the status of archipelagic State in the sense of the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Court observes that Bahrain has not made this claim one of its formal submissions and that the Court is therefore not requested to take a position on this issue. What the Court, however, is called upon to do is to draw a single maritime boundary in accordance with international law. The Court can carry out this delimitation only by applying those rules and principles of customary law which are pertinent under the prevailing circumstances. The Judgment of the Court will have binding force between the Parties, in accordance with Article 59 of the Statute of the Court, and consequently could not be put in issue by the unilateral action of either of the Parties, and in particular, by any decision of Bahrain to declare itself an archipelagic State.

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