04/02/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly intent to be bound, even though not made within the context of international negotiations, is binding. In these circumstances, nothing in the nature of a quid pro quo nor any subsequent acceptance of the declaration, not even any reply or reaction from other States, is required for the declaration to take effect, since such a requirement would be inconsistent with the strictly unilateral nature of the juridical act by which the pronouncement by the State was made.... xxx NOTES: 1. It is very rare that a Court will find that a unilateral statement will bind a State. In Frontier Dispute Case (Burkina Faso v. Mali) 1986 ICJ Rep 554, a Chamber of the International Court of Justice held that a statement by the President of Mali at a press conference did not create legal obligations on Mali, especially as `The Chamber considers that it has a duty to show even greater caution when it is a question of a unilateral declaration not directed to any particular recipient.' (para. 39).[3] Finally, precedents are not strictly followed in international law, so that an international court may end up formulating a new rule out of the factual situation of our MOA-AD, making a unilateral declaration binding under a new type of situation, where, for instance, the other party is not able to sign a treaty as it is not yet a State, but the declaration is made to a "particular recipient" and "witnessed" by a host of sovereign States. As to the rest, I concur. [1]1974 I.C.J. 253. [2]1986 I.C.J. 554. [3]Pp. 59-61, emphasis supplied. SEPARATE OPINION Tinga, J.: As a matter of law, the petitions were mooted by the unequivocal decision of the Government of the Philippines, through the President, not to sign the challenged Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD). The correct course of action for the Court is to dismiss the petitions. The essential relief sought by the petitioners-a writ of prohibition under Rule 65-has already materialized with the Philippine government's voluntary yet unequivocal desistance from signing the MOAAD, thereby depriving the Court of a live case or controversy to exercise jurisdiction elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/47263 138/203