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A Case Ill Suited For Judgment: Constructing 'A Sovereign Access To The Sea' In The Atacama Desert, Christopher Rossi
A Case Ill Suited For Judgment: Constructing 'A Sovereign Access To The Sea' In The Atacama Desert, Christopher Rossi
christopher robert rossi
Abstract: In 2015, the International Court of Justice ruled that Bolivia’s claim against Chile could proceed to the merit stage, setting up this Article’s discussion of perhaps the most intractable border dispute in South American history – Bolivia’s attempt to reclaim from Chile a ‘sovereign access to the Pacific Ocean’. This Article investigates the international law and deeply commingled regional history pertaining to the Atacama Desert region, the hyperarid yet resource-rich region through which Bolivia seeks to secure its long-lost access to the sea. Investigating the factual circumstances (effectivités), the post-colonial international legal principle of uti possidetis …