When the judges gathered at the World Court in The Hague last week and decided that two small islands belonged to Malaysia, their decision-making process was widely applauded.
Both Malaysia and Indonesia were praised for submitting to international judgment their rival claims to the islands of Sipadan and Ligitan. Later, Malaysia celebrated quietly. Indonesia formally accepted the ruling with good grace.
The World Court said, in effect, that the empires of old maps were dead. What matters is the here and now.
This key point has not yet drawn wide comment in the region.
The judges threw out all the arguments for ownership based on old treaties between rival European and later American powers, implying they were unhelpful.
More telling, they ruled, was what governments had done with the territories since independence. It is an obvious point, perhaps, but imagine the implications.
The ruling put an end to a curious situation in which two proudly post-colonial countries, Malaysia and Indonesia, were trying to use colonial treaties to support a claim to two islands in the name of independent national pride - and the creation of wealth.
