El asunto de la obligación de negociar un acceso al Océano Pacífico. Comentario de la sentencia de la Corte Internacional de Justicia, de fecha 1 de octubre de 2018

Abstract

The judgment on the merits of the case on the obligation to negotiate an access to the Pacific Ocean put an end to a judicial adventure that Bolivia started five years before against Chile. It not only resumes more than a century and a half of diplomatic exchanges between both states, but also analyses them from the perspective of international law. Little is new in this judgment with respect to treaties, unilateral acts and reciprocal behaviour of states. More interesting is the reiteration made by the tribunal of the obligations of means and of result, on one side, and of tacit agreements, on the other. This decision, however, marks a turning point in the Bolivian-Chilean relations, and constitutes a veritable tour de force of its legal evaluation.