The Rhine Chlorides Arbitration Concerning the Auditing of Accounts (Netherlands–France): Award of 2004

The Rhine Chlorides Arbitration (2004), one of the few international watercourse arbitrations hitherto conducted, decided the dispute between the Netherlands and France concerning the auditing of accounts relating to the reduction of chloride discharges into the Rhine. France was obliged to undertake certain measures under the Additional Protocol of 1991 to the 1976 Convention on the Protection of the Rhine against Pollution by Chlorides, with the costs shared between four of the five state parties (the Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Germany) according to a specific formula. The Arbitral Tribunal was required to interpret and implement this formula and determine the methodology of calculation to be used in the final auditing of financial contributions paid in advance by the Netherlands to France. This bi-lingual volume contains the first, unofficial, English translation of the original French award and an Introduction by Professor Laurence Boisson de Chazournes of the University of Geneva.