Comments on: Costa Rica Institutes Proceedings in ICJ against Nicaragua Over Río San Juan Conflict

By: José Solano

José Solano — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 12:44:07 +0000

Actually if Nicaragua is presently cutting through Costa Rica’s land to connect the Rio San Juan to Harbor Head it is Nicaragua that would have caused an avulsive change in the flow of the river in addition to having invaded Costa Rica and caused ecological damage.

All of the Laudos and all of the existing maps, both Nicaraguan and Costa Rican, show that Isla Calero, through which Nicaragua is dredging is Costa Rican territory.

See http://actasalexander.blogspot.com/2010/12/donde-esta-el-cano-pastora.html (in Spanish) for an in depth study of the conflict. Lots of maps and documents are available here.

The issue of how Google Earth confused some people is no longer relevant as Google Earth has corrected its error and shows Isla Calero in Costa Rica.

By: Gabriel Eckstein (IWLP blogger)

Gabriel Eckstein (IWLP blogger) — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 02:52:26 +0000

You are absolutely right Joe! Am typing too fast for my own good. I will revise the posting immediately. Thanks!

By: Joe Dellapenna

Joe Dellapenna — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 19:54:35 +0000

Maybe I am missing something, but when you write that Nicaragua would want to prove that the boundary moved by accretion, I think you meant avulsion.

By: J Donaldson

J Donaldson — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 16:51:07 +0000

Although the concepts of accretion and avulsion are often described as principles of international law, the ICJ has been wary of making any direct statements about their validity, despite having opportunity to do so in recent boundary decisions (see El Salvador/Honduras especially). Worldwide, river boundary treaties are not consistent in their treatment of accretion and avulsion so it would be difficult to establish that they are principles through state practice. They have certainly been popular in domestic jurisprudence, from Roman property law through English common law and in US Supreme Court jurisprudence, but this may be insufficient for the ICJ to apply them as rules international law.

Costa Rica is claiming that Nicaragua’s dredging operations are adversely affecting the flow of water through the Rio Colorado, which is currently the main outlet for the upstream San Juan river and solely within Costa Rica (at the moment). Could this be adjudged as an act of significant harm? It also raises the question of whether or not avulsion is limited to natural phenomena such as floods or if man-made works, through either accretion or avulsion, affect the position of the boundary? Definitely a situation to watch both from a boundary and a transboundary water perspective.