The maritime conflict between Chile and Bolivia: a collective responsibility and human rights approach

Abstract

International law has proven itself insufficient to solve the maritime problem between Chile and Bolivia so far. This paper proposes to stop thinking about the conflict as territorial and bilateral and address it from a global justice and human rights’ perspective. The paper explores the concepts of national responsibility, outcome responsibility and remedial responsibility, as the flip side of autonomy and self-determination. It discusses that even if Bolivia is outcome-responsible for losing its sea access, there might be good reasons to argue that other agents from the international community –and not only Chile– have the duty to remedy the situation, given its moral urgency.