The Eritrea/Ethiopia Claims Commission Oversteps Its Boundaries: A Partial Award?

<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>The Eritrea/Ethiopia Claims Commission Oversteps Its Boundaries: A Partial Award? - EJIL</title> <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" /> <meta name="application-name" content="EJIL"> <meta name="author" content="EJIL"> <meta name="keywords" content="" /> <meta name="description" content="" />  <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css" integrity="sha384-BVYiiSIFeK1dGmJRAkycuHAHRg32OmUcww7on3RYdg4Va+PmSTsz/K68vbdEjh4u" crossorigin="anonymous"> <link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Open+Sans" rel="stylesheet"> <link href="./css/style.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> </head> <body> <header> <div class="pre-nav container-full"> <img id="logo" src="/images/logo.svg" alt="EJIL"> <div id="metaNav"> <nav role="navigation" aria-label="Meta navigation"> <ul class="remove-list-style"> <li id="skippy"><a href="#content" class="sr-only sr-only-focusable">Skip to main content</a></li> <li><a href="/contactus.php">Contact</a></li> <li><a href="http://services.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/alerts/etoc?goAlpha=Alphabetically">Join Mailing List</a></li> </ul> </nav> <form action="search.php" method="post" id="search" class="searchform"> <label for="keywords" class="hidden">Search</label> <input type="text" id="keywords" name="keywords" placeholder="Search" /> </form> </div> </div> <div id="primaryNav"> <nav class="container" role="navigation" aria-label="Main navigation"> <ul id="menu-main" class="nav nav-justified nav-tabs"> <li class=""><a class="" href="/index.php">Home</a></li> <li class=""><a href="/about/index.php">About EJIL</a></li> <li class=""><a href="/current.php">Current issue</a></li> <li class=""><a href="/live.php">EJIL: <strong><em>Live!</em></strong></a></li> <li class=""><a href="/podcasts.php">EJIL: <strong><em>The Podcast!</em></strong></a></li> <li class=""><a href="/bookreviews/index.php">Book reviews</a></li> <li class=""><a href="/archives.php">Archives</a></li> </ul> </nav> </div> </header> <main class="generalpage container content article"> <h1>Articles</h1> <div class="title">The Eritrea/Ethiopia Claims Commission Oversteps Its Boundaries: A Partial Award?</div> <ul class='authors'> <li>Gray, Christine</li> </ul> <h2>Abstract</h2> <p class='abstract'> The recent decision by the Eritrea/Ethiopia Claims Commission on the ius ad bellum claims of Ethiopia – that Eritrea had violated the law on the use of force in starting the 1998–2000 war between the two states – is a troubling one. It raises questions about the proper role of arbitral tribunals in such cases. There were many factors which suggested that the Commission should have abstained from giving judgment. There was no unequivocal agreement between the parties that the Commission’s jurisdiction extended beyond claims for violations of humanitarian and other international law during the conflict to an examination of responsibility for the start of the war. Moreover, the award is extremely brief, and consequently it deals with controversial issues of the law of self-defence, such as the meaning of armed attack and the duty to report to the Security Council, in a rather limited way. The award also raises important questions about the relationship of an arbitral tribunal to other bodies. In this case, the award of the Claims Commission undermined the Eritrea/Ethiopia Boundary Commission’s 2002 Delimitation Decision, already under challenge by Ethiopia, at a time of increasing tension along the border. </p> <ul class="authors_infos remove-list-style"> </ul> <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-download-alt" aria-hidden="true"></span> <a href='./pdfs/17/4/96.pdf' target='_blank' onclick="ga('send', 'event', 'File', 'PDF', 'Vol. 17 (2006) No. 4 - The Eritrea/Ethiopia Claims Commission Oversteps Its Boundaries: A Partial Award? (./pdfs/17/4/96.pdf)');">Full text available in PDF format</a><div id='download_acrobat_reader'>The free viewer (Acrobat Reader) for PDF file is available at the <a href='http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html'>Adobe Systems</a></div> <div class="navigation"> <a href='archive.php?issue=4'>Table of contents</a><a href='article.php?article=97&issue=4'>Next Page</a> </div> </main> <footer> <ul class="logos remove-list-style"> <li><a href="https://www.eui.eu/en/academic-units/academy-of-european-law"><img src="./images/logo_eui.png" alt="EUI"></a></li> <li><a href="http://www.law.nyu.edu/"><img src="./images/logo_nyu.png" alt="NYU Law"></a></li> <li><a href="http://ejil.oxfordjournals.org/"><img src="./images/logo_oups.png" alt="Oxford University Press"></a></li> <li><a href="http://www.esil-sedi.eu/"><img src="./images/logo_esil.png" alt="ESIL"></a></li> </ul> <p>© 1998 - 2025 European Journal of International Law <br />All comments and suggestions should be sent to the Webmaster. <br />This site is part of the Academy of European Law online, a joint partnership of the Jean Monnet Center at NYU School of Law and the Academy of European Law at the European University Institute.</p> </footer> </body>  <script> (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA-11073886-2', 'auto'); ga('send', 'pageview'); </script> <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.11.2.min.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="./js/analytics.js"></script> </html>

CINXE.COM

The Eritrea/Ethiopia Claims Commission Oversteps Its Boundaries: A Partial Award? - EJIL