The International Court of Justice, The Hague
Marbdy Consulting Limited provides expert technical support for maritime boundaries, and specifically for dispute resolution either through negotiation or third-party arbitration.
Robin Cleverly outside the ICJ
Dr Robin Cleverly founded Marbdy Consulting Ltd in March 2015 to supply expert technical advice in the field of maritime boundary determination particularly dispute resolution, principally to governments and law firms. This follows on from 25 years as a geologist in the oil industry with BP, 4 years as exploration manager with a specialist satellite mapping company (Nigel Press Associates), and 15 years working in the specialised field of maritime boundaries, ultimately as Head of the Law of the Sea Group at the UK Hydrographic Office. He has worked extensively on international maritime boundary court cases at the ICJ, ITLOS and Annex VII tribunals, and also on outer continental shelf submissions before the CLCS. He is a co-author with Stephen Fietta of “A Practitioner’s Guide to Maritime Boundary Delimitation” published in March 2016 by Oxford University Press.
Specific experience
Robin Cleverly has acted as technical expert in the following cases (client in italics):
Cameroon v Nigeria (ICJ) 2002
Barbados v Trinidad and Tobago (Annex VII) 2005
Nicaragua v Honduras (ICJ 2007)
Romania v Ukraine (ICJ) 2009
Bangladesh v Myanmar (ITLOS) 2012
Nicaragua v Colombia (ICJ) 2012
Peru v Chile (ICJ) 2013
Bangladesh v India (ICJ) 2014
Croatia v Slovenia (Annex VII) 2017
Costa Rica v Nicaragua Certain activities (ICJ) 2015
Nicaragua v Costa Rica Construction of road (ICJ) 2015
Ghana v Cote d’Ivoire (ITLOS Special Chamber) 2017
Costa Rica v Nicaragua (ICJ) 2018
Somalia v Kenya (ICJ) 2021
Nicaragua v Colombia III Alleged Violations (ICJ) 2022
Nicaragua v Colombia II Continental shelf beyond 200M (ICJ) pending
Guatemala v Belize (ICJ) pending
In addition to these cases he has assisted States in the negotiation of their land and maritime boundaries.
Completed negotiations:
Nigeria/Equatorial Guinea – including unitisation area
Nigeria/Sao Tome and Principe – including Joint Development Zone
Nigeria/Benin
Timor-Leste v Australia Conciliation
Several more are still under active negotiation.
Continental Shelf Studies
With a background in geology, Robin Cleverly has worked extensively on the delineation and delimitation of outer continental shelves, under article 76 of UNCLOS. He was part of the UK technical team for its four submissions to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf:
Celtic Sea (with France, Ireland and Spain – FISU)
Rockall-Hatton Bank
Ascension Island
Falkland Islands, and South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands.
He also assisted Nicaragua with its continental shelf submission.
For more information please email: info@marbdy.com