International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea

International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea Tribunal international du droit de la mer (French)
Official logo
Dark blue: States with judges in the ITLOS. Dark green: States formerly with judges in the ITLOS. Light green: Other UNCLOS parties.
Seat	Hamburg, Germany
Working languages	English French
Judges from	21 nations
Leaders
• President	Shunji Yanai
• Vice President	Albert J. Hoffmann
Establishment
• UNCLOS adopted	10 December 1982
• UNCLOS in force	16 November 1994
Website http://www.itlos.org

ITLOS seen from the River Elbe.

The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) is an intergovernmental organization created by the mandate of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea. It was established by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, signed at Montego Bay, Jamaica, on December 10, 1982. The Convention entered into force on November 16, 1994, and established an international framework for law over "all ocean space, its uses and resources". The tribunal is based in Hamburg, Germany. The Convention also established the International Seabed Authority, with responsibility for the regulation of seabed mining beyond the limits of national jurisdiction, that is beyond the limits of the territorial sea, the contiguous zone and the continental shelf.

The Tribunal has the power to settle disputes between party states (there are currently 161: 160 states plus the European Union).

Composition

According to its founding statute, the Tribunal has a set of 21 serving judges from a variety of states parties in three primary bodies:

• The Chamber of Summary Procedure
• The Chamber for Fisheries Disputes
• The Chamber for Marine Environment Disputes

In addition, at the request of Chile and the European Union, the Tribunal also set up a special chamber to deal with the case concerning the Conservation and Sustainable Exploitation of Swordfish Stocks in the South-Eastern Pacific Ocean (Chile/European Union).

The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea is based in Hamburg, Germany.

Current judges

Country	Name	Inauguration	President	Vice president
Algeria	Boualem Bouguetaia	2008
Argentina	Elsa Kelly	2011
Austria	Helmut Türk	2005		2008–
Brazil	Vicente Marotta Rangel	1996
Cape Verde	José Luis Jesus	1999	2008–2011
China	Zhiguo Gao	2008
France	Jean-Pierre Cot	2002
Germany	Rüdiger Wolfrum	1996	2005–2008	1996–1999
Grenada	L. Dolliver M. Nelson	1996	2002–2005	1999–2002
India	P. Chandrasekhara Rao	1996	1999–2002
Japan	Shunji Yanai	2005	2011–
Lebanon	Joseph Aki	1996
Malta	David Joseph Attard	2011
Poland	Stanisław Pawlak	2005
Russia	Vladimir Vladimirovich Golitsyn	2008
Senegal	Tafsir Malick Ndiaye	1996
South Africa	Albert J.Hoffmann	2005
South Korea	Jin-Hyun Paik	2009
Tanzania	James L. Kateka	2005
Trinidad and Tobago	Anthony Amos Lucky	2003		(Antonio Mikahil Ballah)
Ukraine	Markiyan Z.Kulyk	2011

Former judges

Country	Name	Inauguration	Until
Argentina	Hugo Caminos	1996	2011
Bulgaria	Alexander Yankov	1996	2011
Belize	Edward Arthur Laing	1996	2001
Cameroon	Paul Bamela Engo	1996	2008
China	Guangjian Xu	2001	2007
China	Lihai Zhao	1996	2000
Croatia	Budislav Vukas	1996	2005
Ghana	Thomas A. Mensah	1996	2005
Iceland	Gudmundur Eiriksson	1996	2002
Italy	Tullio Treves	1996	2011
Japan	Soji Yamamoto	1996	2005
South Korea	Choon-Ho Park	1996	2008
Russia	Anatoly Lazarevich Kolodkin	1996	2008
Tanzania	Joseph Sinde Warioba	1996	2008
Trinidad and Tobago	Lennox Fitzroy Ballah	2002	2003
Tunisia	Mohamed Mouldi Marsit	1996	2005
United Kingdom	David Anderson	1996	2005

Cases

#	Case	Complainant	Complained	Filed
1	MV Saiga Case 1	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	Guinea	1997
2	MV Saiga Case 2	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	Guinea	1998
3	Southern Bluefin Tuna Case 1	New Zealand	Japan	1999
4	Southern Bluefin Tuna Case 2	Australia	Japan	1999
5	Camouco Case	Panama	France	2000
6	Monte Confurco Case	Seychelles	France	2000
7	Case concerning the Conservation and Sustainable Exploitation of Swordfish Stocks in the South-Eastern Pacific Ocean	Chile	European Union	2000
8	Grand Prince Case	Belize	France	2001
9	Chaisiri Reefer 2 Case	Panama	Yemen	2001
10	MOX Plant Case Case	Ireland	United Kingdom	2001
11	Volga Case	Russia	Australia	2001
12	Case concerning Land Reclamation by Singapore in and around the Straits of Johor	Malaysia	Singapore	2003
13	Juno Trader Case	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	Guinea-Bissau	2004
14	Hoshinmaru Case	Japan	Russia	2007
15	Tomimaru Case	Japan	Russia	2007
16	Dispute concerning delimitation of the maritime boundary between Bangladesh and Myanmar in the Bay of Bengal	Bangladesh	Myanmar	2009
17	Responsibilities and obligations of States sponsoring persons and entities with respect to activities in the Area	International Seabed Authority	N/A	2010
18	MV Louisa Case	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	Spain	2010
19	MV "Virginia G"'' Case	Panama	Guinea-Bissau	2011
20	ARA Libertad (Q-2) Case	Argentina	Ghana	2012
21	Greenpeace's research and protest vessel MV Arctic Sunrise Case (See Greenpeace Arctic Sunrise ship case	Netherlands	Russia	2013

External links

• Official ITLOS Site
• International Foundation for the Law of the Sea
• Privileges and Immunities, Berlin, 14 December 2004