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Journal of World Energy Law and Business, 2018, 11, 1-16
doi: 10.1093/jwelb/jwx033
Advance Access Publication Date: 9 December 2017
Article
Investment disputes arising out of areas of
unsettled boundaries: Ghana/Cate d'Ivoire
Christine Sim*
ABSTRACT
When investments have been made in an area in which a state asserts its sovereignty, but its bounda-
ries later shift, which investment protection treaties apply? To illustrate this issue, this article focuses
on the petroleum licences in the Atlantic Ocean between Ghana and C6te d'Ivoire as an investment,
which were recently the subject of international proceedings on delimitation of the maritime bound-
ary. This uncertainty arises regardless of how the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea
would have delimited the maritime boundary. Potential issues arising from investment treaties in-
clude: the definition of an investor, the definition of territory and the timing of the investment.
Depending on how the Ghana/Cote d'Ivoire boundary disputes were resolved, investment arbitra-
tions could be commenced against either, or both, of the states. The problems highlighted in this
article are relevant to many other unsettled territorial and maritime boundaries in the world which
may trigger investment disputes.
1. INTRODUCTION
Regardless of what delimitation lines the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS)
Special Chamber drew, the uncertainty surrounding the hydrocarbon concession blocks between
Ghana and C6te d'Ivoire remains an issue that pervades other land and maritime disputes.1 There are cur-
rently more than 150 unresolved interstate disputes concerning international boundaries on land or at sea.
The Ghana/Cte d'Ivoire dispute focuses on the risks faced by companies developing hydrocarbon reserves in
disputed areas. The chief risk is that a licence previously granted to investors will be later contested.2
* Practice Fellow and Research Associate, Centre for International Law; LLM (Geneva Masters in International Dispute Settlement);
Advocate and Solicitor, Supreme Court of Singapore. Email: christine.simapmids.ch.
1 'Mapping Every Disputed Territory in the World' (Metrocosm, 20 November 2015) <http://metrocosm.com/mapping-every-disputed-terri
tory-in-the-world/> accessed 10 November 2017; Richard Happ and Sebastien Wuschka, 'Horror Vacui: Or Why Investment Treaties
Should Apply to Illegally Annexed Territories' (2016) 33(3) J Int'l Arb 245; Enrico Milano and Irini Papanicolopulu, 'State Responsibility
in Disputed Areas on Land and at Sea' (2011) ZaoRV 71 ('Milano & Papanicolopulu'); Arbitration Under the Timor Sea Treaty (Timor-Leste
v Australia), Permanent Court of Arbitration, PCA Case No 2013-16 < http://www.pca-cpa.org/showpage.asp?pag id=1403> accessed 5
June 2017; Conciliation between the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste and the Commonwealth of Australia, PCA Case 2016-10, Decision on
Competence, paras 5-12; Agreement Relating to the Unitisation of the Sunrise and Troubadour Fields [2007] (ATS 11, 23 Feb 2007),
<http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/dfat/treaties/2007/11.html> accessed 5 June 2017; Victor Prescott and Clive Schofield, The
Maritime Political Boundaries of the World (Brill 2005).
2 See, for example, disputes referred to as 'Kenya / Somalia, South China Sea, Cyprus / Turkey, Guyana / Venezuela, Timor Gap, The
Faulkands / Malvinas' in Nigel Blackaby and Ben Juratowitch, 'Hydrocarbons in Disputed Areas' (2015) 44 (4) ILN 1; Xinhua News
Agency, 'China Succeeds in Mining Combustible Ice in South China Sea' Xinhua News Agency(18 May 2017) <http://www.shanghaidail y.
com/nation/China-succeeds-in-mining-combustible-ice-in-South-China-Sea/shdaily.shtml> accessed 31 May 2017; Marie-Christine
Aquarone, 'The 1985 Guinea/Guinea-Bissau Maritime Boundary Case and Its Implications' (1995) 26 (4) Ocean Dev & Int'l L 413; Saadia
© The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the AIPN. All rights reserved.
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