Nicaragua V. Colombia Territorial And Maritime Dispute Reviewed

Ocean contains rich resources, oil and gas resources and other natural resources,which has close contact to the social life of human beings. Meanwhile, it hasenhanced the issues of maritime rights and interests among the coastal states. China isboth a land and sea country, has a vast coast, and adjacent to Bohai sea, Yellow sea,East China sea, South China sea. As Chinese navigator Zhenghe once said,”A countrycannot be rich and strong if ignoring the ocean. Wealth comes from the ocean, so doesthe danger.” There is maritime rights disputes between China and several neighboringcountries.The International Court of Justice has made a decision for the territorial andmaritime dispute (Nicaragua v. Columbia) on November19,2012. This decision is thelasting ruling in the area of territorial and maritime. In this case, there are two aspectsreflecting international proceedings: in contentions procedure, such as: the jurisdictionof ICJ, the parties choosing ad hoc judge, other relevant country’s right of enteringcourt; substantially, like the definition of island, having acquire of territorialsovereignty, the application of applicable law and maritime delimitation principlesand methods adopted by the specific issues. These may be helpful to solve today’s andpotential maritime problems in China. This paper mainly analyzes and reviews thiscase, in order to solve the existing and potential issues and put forward somebeneficial suggestions.