Overview
- Vanuatu filed an application at the ICJ in early September seeking sovereignty over Matthew (Umaenupne) and Hunter (Umaeneg) islands to settle maritime boundaries and resource rights.
- The Hague court has received Vanuatu’s filing and has formally sent the application to Paris because it cannot proceed unless France consents to the court’s jurisdiction.
- France has so far not given a public acceptance of ICJ jurisdiction and has a history of limiting compulsory acceptance of the World Court, making Paris’s response the key procedural hurdle.
- Legal analysts say any merits hearing would likely turn on the UN Law of the Sea rule that tiny uninhabited rocks that cannot sustain human life do not generate exclusive economic zones, which could limit claims to surrounding waters and seabed minerals.
- The dispute revives colonial grievances and touches regional politics, with some Kanak leaders in New Caledonia backing Vanuatu and French domestic parties using the case for political pressure; a French junior foreign minister said Paris will reply on jurisdiction and the merits in due course.