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Arbitral Award of 31

July 1989
GUINEA BISSAU vs.
SENEGAL
(Arbitration Tribunal for the
determination of the Maritime
Boundary)
The Governments of the Republic of Senegal
and the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, Recognizing that
they have been unable to settle by
means of diplomatic negotiation the dispute
relating
to the determination of their maritime boundary,
signed an Arbitration Agreement. France and
Portugal
had concluded certain agreements on the
delimitation.
Thus, by a convention signed in Paris
on 12 May 1886, Portugal and France
established a
delimitation between Republic of Guinea-
Bissau on the
one side and the French Colonies of
Senegal (the present Republic of Senegal) to
the north and Guinea (the present Republic
of Guinea) to the south and east.
The convention specified that the following
should
belong to Portugal: "All the islands comprised
between the meridian of Cape Roxo, the
coast and a southern limit formed by
a line which shall follow the thalweg of
the Cajet River and continue in a
south-westerly direction across the Pilots
channel ".
A Portuguese Decree February 1958 which
empowered
the Minister for Overseas Affairs to sign
a contract granting a concession to the
Esso Company gave rise to objections on
the part of France. There followed
negotiations
at Lisbon from 8 to 10 September 1959 for the
purpose of arriving at an agreed delimitation
It is not disputed by the Parties
to the present dispute that delimitation
effected
by that Franco-Portuguese Convention of 1886
defines the land frontier between the Republic
of Senegal and the Republic of Guinea-Bissau.
The two Parties also agreed that the
Convention does not define their maritime
boundary
of the territorial sea, the contiguous zones
and the continental shelf. On 10 September
1959 the
negotiators established "recommendations"
which were submitted to
the two Governments. The first of these
"recommendations" is the source of the
content
of the Agreement of 26 April 1960.
The key fact was, whether the
Agreement
of 26 April 1960 has the force of law
in the relations between the
Republic of
Senegal and the Republic of Guinea-
Bissau, and
what is the course of the line
delimiting the maritime territories
appertaining to the
Republic of Senegal and Republic of
Guinea-Bissau .
First Argument Second Argument Courts decision
The Republic of Senegal asserts It should be pointed
Guinea-Bissau that it had always out that the present
contends that been aware of the case is not one in
when, in September Franco-Portuguese which two states
1977, negotiations negotiations which have established a
between the Parties culminated in the tribunal to decide
were, on its Agreement of 26 on the validity or
initiative, begun for April 1960, since the nullity of an
the purpose of the French agreement
settling the delegation included concluded between
question of the a Senegalese other countries
determination of member, that it has which are totally
the maritime constantly relied on unrelated to them,
boundary between the 240 maritime as would be the
them, Guinea- boundary defined situation. The
Bissau was not by the 1960 present dispute
even Agreement, concerns an
Agreement
between two
parties, of which
two parties are the
successor States.
aware of the and that Guinea- The two countries admit
existence of the Bissau had also that they are the
Franco-Portuguese respected the successors of the States
exchange of letters Agreement, that which concluded the
of 26 April 1960, and for many years it 1960 Agreement, but
it was only from has not protested their views diverge
1978 on that the against it and that regarding the rules
Republic of Senegal the proclamation governing succession
invoked it in the of independence between States. Thus,
course of the 05 Guinea-Bissau, while Senegal asserts
negotiations. in its reference to that succession
the boundaries of operates for the 1960
the territorial Agreement, Guinea-
waters, tacitly Bissau maintains the
recognized I the contrary. In so far as it
240" limit. may be, the subject of
the succession of the
States and with regard
to its effects in the
relation between
Guinea-Bissau and
Senegal, the validity
and the effects of that
the Tribunal decides by two votes to
one: To reply as follows to the first
question formulated in Article 2 of the
Arbitration
Agreement: The Agreement concluded
by an exchange
of letters on 26 April 1960, and relating
to
the maritime boundary, has the force of
law in the relations between the
Republic
of Guinea-Bissau and the Republic of
Senegal
with regard solely to the areas
mentioned
in that Agreement, namely the
territorial sea,
the contiguous zone and the
continental shelf.
The "straight line drawn at 240" is a
loxodromic line.

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