Guyana yesterday pilloried Venezuela’s preliminary objections to a case seeking validation of the 1899 arbitral tribunal award fixing the boundaries between the two countries and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is to notify the agents of both sides when it is ready to rule.
Professor Philippe Sands KC, one of the battery of international lawyers representing Guyana at the seat of the Court in the Hague, the Nether-lands, said that while Venezuela recognised the need to establish wrongful conduct on the part of the arbitral tribunal, it has been unable to do so.
Confronted by this failure, Sands said Venezuela instead shifted its argument to say that the wrongful conduct which it ascribes to the United Kingdom (UK) in those negotiations, invalidates the 1899 award to Guyana.
