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34 Vt. L. Rev. 357 (2009-2010)
River Boundary Delimitation and the Resolution of the Sir Creek Dispute between Pakistan and India

handle is hein.journals/vlr34 and id is 361 raw text is: RIVER BOUNDARY DELIMITATION AND THE RESOLUTION OF THE SIR CREEK DISPUTE BETWEEN PAKISTAN AND INDIA Sikander Ahmed Shah*t GENERAL BACKGROUND Sir Creek is a 60-mile-long estuary separating the Pakistani province of Sind from the Indian province of Gujarat,' where in April 1965 fighting broke out a few months prior to the commencement of a full-fledged war between India and Pakistan.2 Consequently, British Prime Minister Harold Wilson managed to convince both nations to cease fighting and create a tribunal for the resolution of the greater Rann of Kutch boundary dispute.3 The Sir Creek boundary became contentious after the resolution of the Rann of Kutch dispute between the two countries through arbitration undertaken by the Indo-Pakistani Western Boundary Case Tribunal, which was constituted pursuant to the agreement of June 30, 1965.4 The ad hoc tribunal delivered its award on February 19, 1968,5 and awarded India 90% of its * Assistant Professor, Department of Law and Policy, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan. Research Scholar and Michigan Grotius Fellow at the University of Michigan Law School, Ann Arbor, 2008-2009. t Special thanks to Professor Steven Ratner for his guidance and unstinted support, Judge Bruno Simma of the I.C.J., Professor A. W. Brian Simpson, Professor J. Christopher McCrudden and Lubna Anwar. 1. A. G. NOORANI, HENRY L. STIMPSON CENTER WASHINGTON D.C., EASING THE INDO- PAKISTAN DIALOGUE ON KASHMIR: CONFIDENCE-BUILDING MEASURES FOR THE SIACHEN GLACIER, SIR CREEK AND THE WULLAR BARRAGE DISPUTES, OCCASIONAL PAPER 16, 12 (Apr. 1, 1994), available at http://www.stimson.org/southasia/pdf/occasionalpaperl6.pdf (stating that Sir Creek is in reality a fluctuating tidal channel.). See A.S. WISDOM, THE LAW OF RIVERS AND WATERCOURSES 56 (Shaw) (2d ed. 1975) (A tidal navigable river means a river which is subject to the vertical flow and reflow of the ordinary tides and navigable as such.). 2. E.g., MOHAMMED ARSHAD CHAUDHRY & K.C. CARIAPPA, How COOPERATIVE AERIAL MONITORING CAN CONTRIBUTE TO REDUCING TENSIONS BETWEEN INDIA AND PAKISTAN 25 (2001), available at http://www.cmc.sandia.gov/cmc-papers/sand98-050522.pdf; NOORANI, supra note 1, at 26; Rahul Roy-Chaudnury, Trends in the Delimitation of India's Maritime Boundaries, 22 STRATEGIC ANALYSIS, Jan. 1999, available at http://www.ciaonet.org/olj/sa/sa_99roro.html. 3. Mukund G. Untawale, The Kutch-Sind Dispute: A Case Study in International Arbitration, 23 INT'L & COMP. L.Q. 818, 824 (1974); Sandeep Gopalan, India-Pakistan Relations: Legalization and Agreement Design, 40 VAND. J. TRANSNAT'L L. 687, 700 (2007). 4. NOORANI, supra note 1, at 26. See Indo-Pakistan Western Boundary (India v. Pak.), 17 R. Int'l Arb. Awards I (Perm. Ct. Arb. 1968), available at http://untreaty.un.org/cod/riaa/cases/vol _XVII/l-576.pdf (outlining Pakistan's arguments before the arbitration tribunal). 5. Indo-Pakistan Western Boundary, 17 R. Int'l Arb. Awards I; see also J. Gillis Wetter, The Rann of Kutch Arbitration, 65 Am. J. INT'L L. 346, 347 (1971) (discussing generally the boundary dispute between India and Pakistan); see also Untawale, supra note 3, at 818 (distinguishing the Sir Creek Boundary Dispute Tribunal from an I.C.J. Judicial Settlement).

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