| III. | The International Court of Justice |
| 4. | JUDGMENTS OF THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE |
| 4.1. | General Questions |
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Maritime Delimitation in the Area
between Greenland and Jan Mayen,
Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 1993, p. 38
[pp. 114-115 S.O. Oda] 90. The Court has drawn "the
delimitation line that divides the continental shelf and fishery zones of the
Kingdom of Denmark and the Kingdom of Norway". Holding as I do the view
that the Court is not competent to determine the delimitation line at all unless
requested jointly by the Parties to decide the case ex aequo et bono, I
am in no position to comment on the actual course of the delimitation effected
by the Court.
91. I am concerned, however, that, even supposing that the Court had been
requested by agreement to draw a single maritime boundary on the basis of
Article 38, paragraph 2, of the Statute, it did not present any convincing
statement of its reasons for having drawn the particular single maritime
boundary line shown on sketch-map No. 2 attached to the Judgment. The line drawn
by the Court may well be one of an infinite number of possibilities which could
have been indicated if the Court had thought any one of them would lead to an
equitable solution. However, in choosing this line rather than any other, the
Court seems to have taken a purely arbitrary decision.
