062- Aegean See Continental Shelf Case (Greece vs Turkey)
On August 10th, 1976, Greece filed before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) an application instituting proceedings against Turkey in a dispute concerning the continental shelf of the Aegean Sea. It claimed that the Greek islands in the region were entitled to a portion of the continental shelf and to delimit the extents of that shelf under the jurisdiction of Greece and Turkey respectively. The applicant accompanied this motion with a request for the indication of provisional measures, which was rejected by the Court in an order dated September 11th 1976.
Turkey, for its part, challenged the ICJ’s jurisdiction to hear this dispute. In its Judgment of December 19th 1978, the Court declared itself without jurisdiction on the basis of the two instruments invoked by Greece, namely the General Geneva Act of 1928 for the Peaceful Settlement of International Disputes and the Greek-Turkish press release of 31 May 1975.
This summary is provided for informational purposes only, does not involve the responsibility of Dome and should in no way be used as a substitute for a careful reading of the judgment and order of the case.
