752
Opinion of the Court
Moreover, the record of the 1970's dispute makes clear that this Court accepted New Hampshire's agreement with Maine that "Middle of the River" means middle of the main navigable channel, and that New Hampshire benefited from that interpretation. New Hampshire, it is true, preferred the interpretation of "Middle of the River" in the Special Master's report. See Exceptions and Brief for Plaintiff in New Hampshire v. Maine, O. T. 1975, No. 64 Orig., p. 3 (hereinafter Plaintiff's Exceptions) ("the boundary now proposed by the Special Master is more favorable to [New Hampshire] than that recommended in the proposed consent decree"). But the consent decree was sufficiently favorable to New Hampshire to garner its approval. Although New Hampshire now suggests that it "compromised in Maine's favor" on the definition of "Middle of the River" in the 1970's litigation, Brief in Opposition to Motion to Dismiss 24, that "compromise" enabled New Hampshire to settle the case, see id., at 24-25, on terms beneficial to both States. Notably, in their joint motion for entry of the consent decree, New Hampshire and Maine represented to this Court that the proposed judgment was "in the best interest of each State." Motion for Consent Judgment 1. Relying on that representation, the Court accepted the boundary proposed by the two States. New Hampshire v. Maine, 434 U. S. 1 (1977).
At oral argument, New Hampshire urged that the consent decree simply fixed the "Middle of the River" at "an arbitrary location based on the administrative convenience of the parties." Tr. of Oral Arg. 37. To the extent New Hampshire implies that the parties settled the lateral marine boundary dispute without judicial endorsement of their interpretation of "Middle of the River," that view is fore-closed by the Court's determination that "[t]he consent decree . . . proposes a wholly permissible final resolution of the controversy both as to facts and law," New Hampshire v. Maine, 426 U. S., at 368-369. Three dissenting Justices agreed with New Hampshire that the consent decree in-
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