Beagle Channel Arbitration - The Reaction To The Judgement

The Reaction To The Judgement

Chile accepted the judgement immediately and enacted it into its domestic law on 14 June 1977 (decree n°416 over the base lines).

On 25 January 1978 Argentina repudiated the arbitration award. According to Argentina:

1. the Argentine argument had been distorted and misrepresented.
2. the judgement had covered topics outside its terms of reference
3. the Court had drawn contradictory conclusions.
4. the Court had made errors of interpretation.
5. the Court had made geographical and historical errors.
6. the Court had not properly balanced the arguments and evidence of each party.

It has been argued that the Argentine claims over the Beagle Channel could not be sustained from a legal point of view and that in practice many of their assertions were subjective.