The River Commission and Sustainable Development of Shared Water Resources. Judgement of 20.4.2010, Pulp Mills on the River Uruguay (Argentina v. Uruguay)

In 2009 and 2010 the International Court of Justice dealt with the river problems of Latin America. Firstly a dispute involving Costa Rica against Nicaragua, concerning commerce navigation on the San Juan River, was resolved. The Court’s judgment was rather conservative because it merely analysed a bilateral treaty of 1858 and failed to take into account the changes in customary general international river law which were achieved during the following century. This was the situation when banks of the river belonged to Nicaragua and Costa Rica and both States enjoyed navigation rights for commercial purposes. The situation however is more progressive than as regards the Oder river, where navigation on the whole river was not regulated by the treaty of the three bank countries. The second case resolved by the International Court of Justice dealt with pulp mills on the river Uruguay ending a dispute between Argentina v. Uruguay. The legal grounds for utilization of the River Uruguay are contained in a bilateral treaty concluded between Argentina and Uruguay on 7.4.1961 as a boundary treaty which laid down the grounds for creating the regime