ITLOS Tribunal Rules on Maritime Boundary Dispute Between Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire (September 23, 2017) [1]
On September 23, 2017, the Special Chamber of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) delivered its judgment [3] in the Dispute Concerning Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary Between Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire in the Atlantic Ocean (Ghana/Côte d'Ivoire). In 2014, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire agreed to submit the dispute concerning their maritime boundary to an ITLOS Special Chamber. The disputed area includes a number of oil and gas fields, and each party advocated for different methodologies in delineating the maritime boundary between their states. The Special Chamber ruled largely in Ghana’s favor and, as the press release [4] notes, created a definitive single maritime boundary for the territorial sea, the exclusive economic zone, and the continental shelf within and beyond 200. The Special Chamber also rejected Ghana’s claim that Côte d’Ivoire was estopped from objecting to the “customary equidistance boundary” that Ghana had put forward in its arguments and found that Ghana did not violate Côte d’Ivoire’s sovereign rights when it expanded its oil exploration in the disputed area.