ICJ to begin hearings on jurisdiction case on June 30

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is set to begin hearing the jurisdiction case in the Guyana/Venezuela controversy on June 30. The Hague-based court has announced that it will begin oral hearings on the question of the Court’s jurisdiction in the case concerning the Arbitral Award of October 3, 1899, between Guyana and Venezuela. The hearings are scheduled to commence at 14:00h and would be conducted via videoconference. This virtual hearing is as a result of the ongoing restrictions due to the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The ICJ had postponed the long-anticipated hearing of the Guyana/Venezuela border controversy case that was scheduled to begin on March 23, 2020, citing the coronavirus pandemic. In a previous notice, ICJ had informed the parties of the schedules for the upcoming public hearings to determine whether the Court has jurisdiction to preside over the matter.
Guyana filed its case with the World Court on March 29, 2018, seeking a final and binding judgment that the 1899 Arbitral Award, which established the location of the land boundary between the then-British Guiana and Venezuela, remains valid and binding, and that Guyana’s Essequibo region belongs to Guyana, and not Venezuela as is being claimed by the Spanish-speaking country.
Guyana moved to the World Court after exhausting all means of negotiation with Venezuela.
United Nations Secretary General António Guterres, in January 2018 decided that the case should be settled by the ICJ after exercising the powers vested in him to decide how the controversy should be settled by the 1966 Geneva Agreement between Guyana, Venezuela and the United Kingdom.
However, Venezuela had claimed, in a letter to the World Court, that the Secretary General exceeded his authority under the Geneva Agreement, and therefore, the Court lacks jurisdiction to adjudicate the lawsuit filed by Guyana.
The ICJ is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. It was established by the United Nations Charter in June 1945 and began its activities in April 1946. The Court is composed of 15 Judges elected for a nine-year term by the General Assembly and the Security Council of the United Nations. The seat of the Court is at the Peace Palace in The Hague (Netherlands).
The Court has a twofold role: first, to settle, in accordance with international law, through judgments which have binding force and are without appeal for the parties concerned, legal disputes submitted to it by States; and, second, to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by duly authorised United Nations organs and agencies of the system.