The workload of the International Court of Justice in recent years has increasingly featured cases of disputes classified either as ‘territorial disputes’ or as ‘boundary disputes’, or otherwise involving the Court in considerations of the law relating to acquisition or transmission of territory, or to the creation, location and effect of territorial frontiers. The present survey analyzes the contributions to international law of the Court's decisions in these recent cases. Matters examined include the significance of the terms ‘boundary dispute’ or ‘territorial dispute’; the definition of what constitutes sovereign territory; titles and effectivités as bases for territorial claims; decolonization and the uti possidetis juris; use of natural features or of straight lines as boundaries; and relations across a frontier once established.

The chamber of the ICJ entrusted with solving the Benin–Niger dispute based its judgment on the colonial heritage left to the two countries at the time of their independence, as prescribed by the uti possidetis juris principle. The dispute actually stemmed from that heritage: the chamber's role was to interpret and clarify it. But while the uti possidetis juris principle underlines border stability, features such as river boundaries, because of their intrinsic movable nature, can put this stability under intense strain. The judgment lends itself to further reflections on this dichotomy, since the disputed areas revolved around two rivers.

On 9 October 1998, an Arbitral Tribunal handed down its Award regarding the first stage of an arbitration between Eritrea and Yemen. The Award determined, firstly, the scope of the dispute between the parties and, secondly, the sovereignty of small islands, islets, rocks and low-tide elevations sprinkling in the Red Sea between the respective coast lines of the two states. Whilst closely examining concepts raised by the parties such as historic title, the Tribunal was ultimately swayed by factors of geographical appurtenance, recent demonstrations of governmental authority and functions of state, and, to a lesser extent, the area's legal history. The Award contributes to the body of law on territorial sovereignty and to an understanding of the role of arbitration in the peaceful resolution of disputes.