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The Qatar v. Bahrain Maritime Delimitation and Territorial Questions Case

Author: Barbara Kwiatkowska

Abstract

The Qatar v. Bahrain Maritime Delimitation and Territorial Questions case was the first major maritime delimitation dispute settled by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) since the 1993 Denmark v. Norway Maritime Delimitation in the Area Between Greenland and Jan Mayen Judgment. The latter was followed by the 1998 Territorial Sovereignty and Scope of the Dispute Award and the 1999 Maritime Delimitation Award rendered by the Eritrea/Yemen Arbitral Tribunal. All three landmark cases provided instances of the application of the modern law of maritime boundary delimitation, as developed in what the President of the ICJ, Judge Stephen M. Schwebel, described as the "notably Successful" equitable jurisprudence of the ICJ and arbitral tribunals. Like the Eritrea/Yemen arbitration and the recent Land and Maritime Boundary (Cameroon v. Nigeria; Equatorial Guinea Intervening) proceedings, the Qatar v. Bahrain case involved issues of maritime delimitation in combination with those of territorial sovereignty and belonged to cases of particularly pronounced procedural and substantial importance.

This Briefing provides a detailed analysis of the Qatar v. Bahrain case, including the 1994 and 1995 Jurisdiction and Admissibility Judgments and the 2001 Merits Judgment and Opinions. Topics covered include: the course of the proceedings; the delivery and components of the Judgment; the geographical setting; territorial sovereignty questions (Zubarah, the Hawar Islands, Janan Island, and Qit'at Jaradah and Fasht ad Dibal); and the maritime boundary delimitation.

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