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LAND BOUNDARIES 275
The agreement also contains an arbitration clause and a provision
for the reference of disputes arising from the parties’ obligations under
it to the International Court of Justice for examination and adjudica­
tion under the Court’s procedure. The Court’s judgment shall be
binding upon the two parties (Art. XXII).
If cither party refuses to implement the judgment made in accord-
ance with the above article, the other party shall be relieved from its
obligations under the agreement (Art. XXII).
Finally, the agreement shall enter into force on the date of the
exchange of instruments of ratification (Art. XXIII).
The above agreement received constitutional sanction under the
law of Saudi Arabia by virtue of the Royal Decree No. 3, dated
11 July 1965, and it was approved by the Kuwaiti National Assembly
on 4 June 1966. In accordance with the provision of Article XXII1,
Kuwaiti and Saudi representatives exchanged the instruments of
ratification of the agreement at Jiddah on 25 July 1966.1
It is noteworthy that the above agreement contains a novel arrange­
ment by virtue of which the Neutral Zone territory could be divided
geographically into two equal parts, with each part being subject to
one distinct sovereignty, while still retaining its condominium status
under a joint sovereignty for the purpose of exploiting its natural
resources.
It is clear from the provisions of this agreement that the parties to
it were primarily concerned with finding a satisfactory and practical
solution to the problems arising from the absence of a joint administra­
tive machinery in the Zone that could, effectively and satisfactorily,
represent the parties’equal rights and interests in thearea. Consequently,
the parties, having failed to agree upon a joint administrative system
in the Zone (a kind of condominium) to represent their joint authority
there, decided to divide the whole area of the Zone equally between
them, with each party annexing as part of its own territory that equal
portion of the Zone which is contiguous to its frontier.
Accordingly, the part of the partitioned Zone lying to the north of
the dividing line became part of the original territory of the State of
Kuwait and the part lying to the south of that line became part of the
original territory of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Art. II). Each
State retains in the portion of the Zone attached to its original territory
exclusive rights of ‘administration, legislation and defence’. The
exercise of these rights by either Party shall, however, not affect, in
any manner, the ‘equal rights’ of both contracting parties in respect of
the exploitation of natural resources (at present these are taken to
mean oil) of the whole Zone, notwithstanding the partition (Art. III).
Measures for the exploitation of these natural resources from the
whole Neutral Zone, including its territorial sea and the offshore area
1 Sec Umm al-Qura, 5 August 1966, op. cit.