Case Concerning Pulp Mills on the River Uruguay (Argentina v. Uruguay): Of Environmental Impact Assessments and “Phantom Experts”

On 20 April 2010, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) announced its highly anticipated judgment in the environmental dispute between Argentina and Uruguay. Perhaps the most notable contribution of this judgment to international environmental law and the law on shared watercourses is the fact that the ICJ explicitly recognized Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) as a practice that has attained customary international law status. Another interesting point is the discussion, which the present case ignited, with respect to the use or non-use in the case in question of experts by the ICJ through an application of Rule 50 of the Statute of the Court. Although the ICJ did not make use of this provision, a lot of concerns were expressed both in the corpus of the judgment and in the opinion of the judges as to the possible usefulness and necessity of this option, especially in such complex and technical matters, which are characteristic of environmental disputes.