Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Resolving Historical Issues in Court

Bolivia is suing Chile at the International Court of Justice, seeking to overturn the results of the War of the Pacific (1879-1883), and regain access to the Pacific Ocean (most of northern Chile belonged to Bolivia before the war).

Most commentary I have read says, not surprisingly, that Bolivia doesn't have much chance of winning. I suspect that there's even less chance that Chile would pay any attention to such a ruling.

But, on the off-chance that the ICJ rules for Bolivia, I wonder what the next such case might be: Perhaps the Romans could be ordered to pay reparations to Carthage?

PS: I wrote almost a year ago about the practice of countries (Bolivia was one example) using old grudges and other nationalistic tricks to distract their populace.

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