A STUDY OF INSTITUTIONAL DETERMINATION AND CONSOLIDATION IN PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW - THE CHAGOS CASE

Located in the middle of the Indian Ocean, the Chagos Archipelago has been subject to a sovereignty dispute between the United Kingdom and its former colony, Mauritius. Before Mauritius gained independence in 1968, the Chagos Archipelago was separated in order to establish the British Indian Ocean Territory. The main island in the archipelago, Diego Garcia, was leased to the United States and is home to a military base with 3.000 personnel. Mauritius has been challenging the detachment of the Chagos Archipelago, which it claims to be unlawful, by using international legal mechanisms available before it. After a journey that involved the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), Mauritius has achieved legal victory. 
The ICJ’s Advisory Opinion determined that Mauritius’s right to self-determination within the context of decolonization was violated and the ITLOS Special Chamber consolidated this finding by acknowledging Mauritius as the sovereign of the Chagos Archipelago. While these decisions are admirable for upholding the right to self-determination, they have stretched the jurisdictional limits of each respective institution by ruling on a sovereignty dispute.