The Abyei award: Fitting a diplomatic square peg into a legal round hole

Markus Böckenförde*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

On 22 July 2009 a Tribunal of five leading international lawyers rendered their award at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), thereby redrawing the boundaries of Abyei, a small patch of land in the centre of Sudan and source of violent conflict throughout recent years. The arbitration was initiated by the two signatories of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that in 2005 brought an end to the longest civil war in Africa. Both parties, the government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement, expressed satisfaction with the award, which conceivably saved the CPA from potential collapse. This article examines the legal oddities which accompanied the settlement of the dispute over the Abyei area. It analyses both the referral of the dispute to the PCA through the lens of the Sudanese Constitution and the legal ambiguities of the award itself.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)555-569
Number of pages15
JournalLeiden Journal of International Law
Volume23
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2010
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Abyei
  • Comprehensive Peace Agreement
  • Interim National Constitution
  • Sudan
  • arbitration

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The Abyei award: Fitting a diplomatic square peg into a legal round hole'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this