International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea

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International Tribunal for the Law of the SeaTribunal international du droit de la mer (French)
Official logo
Seat	Hamburg, Germany
Working languages	English French
Judges from	21 nations
Leaders

• President	Judge Albert Hoffmann
• Vice President	Judge Tomas Heidar

Establishment

• UNCLOS adopted	December 10, 1982
• UNCLOS in force	November 16, 1994

Website http://www.itlos.org

ITLOS seen from Elbchaussee, close to 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 ITLOS is one of four dispute resolution mechanisms listed in Article 287 of the UNCLOS.

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. There are currently 168 signatories, 167 states plus the European Union. As of 2021, holdouts included the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Composition

According to its founding statute, the Tribunal has a set of 21 judges who serve from a variety of states parties, "according to a method that intends to assure an equitable geographical representation".

At the request of Chile and the European Union, the Tribunal set up a special chamber composed of 5 judges to deal with the Case concerning the Conservation and Sustainable Exploitation of Swordfish Stocks in the South-Eastern Pacific Ocean (Chile/European Community).

By agreement of the parties Ghana and Ivory Coast, the Tribunal formed a special chamber composed of 5 judges to deal with the Dispute concerning Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary between Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire in the Atlantic Ocean (Ghana/Côte d'Ivoire).

By agreement of the parties Mauritius and Maldives, the Tribunal formed a special chamber of 7 permanent judges and 2 ad hoc judges to deal with the Dispute concerning Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary between Mauritius and Maldives in the Indian Ocean (Mauritius/Maldives).

Seats

Disputes referred to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea or one of its chambers can be heard in Germany or in Singapore.

Current judges

.	Country	Name	Inauguration	President	Vice president
1	Cape Verde	José Luís Jesus	1999	2008–2011
2	Poland	Stanisław Pawlak	2005
3	Japan	Shunji Yanai	2005	2011–2014
4	Tanzania	James Kateka	2005
5	South Africa	Albert J. Hoffmann	2005	2020–present	2011–2014
6	Algeria	Boualem Bouguetaia	2008		2014–2017
7	South Korea	Paik Jin-hyun	2009	2017–2020
8	Malta	David Attard	2011		2017–2020
9	Ukraine	Markiyan Kulyk	2011
10	Mexico	Alonso Gómez-Robledo	2014
11	Iceland	Tomas Heiðar	2014		2020–present
12	Paraguay	Óscar Cabello Sarubbi	2017
13	India	Neeru Chadha	2017
14	Thailand	Kriangsak Kittichaisaree	2017
15	Russia	Roman Kolodkin	2017
16	Netherlands	Liesbeth Lijnzaad	2017
17	Chile	María Teresa Infante Caffi	2020
18	Jamaica	Kathy-Ann Brown	2020
19	Italy	Ida Caracciolo	2020
20	Cameroon	Maurice Kamga	2020
21	China	Duan Jielong	2020

Former judges

Country	Name	Inauguration	Until
Bulgaria	Alexander Yankov	1996	2011
Russia	Anatoly Kolodkin	1996	2008
Brazil	Antonio Cachapuz de Medeiros	2016	2016
Croatia	Budislav Vukas	1996	2005
South Korea	Choon-ho Park	1996	2008
France	Jean-Pierre Cot	2002	2020
United Kingdom	David Heywood Anderson	1996	2005
Grenada	Dolliver Nelson	1996	2014
Belize	Edward Arthur Laing	1996	2001
China	Gao Zhiguo	2008	2020
China	Xu Guangjian	2001	2007
Iceland	Guðmundur Eiríksson	1996	2002
Austria	Helmut Türk	2005	2014
Argentina	Hugo Caminos	1996	2011
Lebanon	Joseph Akl	1996	2017
Tanzania	Joseph Warioba	1996	2008
Argentina	Elsa Kelly	2011	2020
Trinidad and Tobago	Lennox Fitzroy Ballah	2002	2003
Senegal	Tafsir Malick Ndiaye	1996	2020
China	Zhao Lihai	1996	2000
Trinidad and Tobago	Anthony Lucky	2003	2020
Cameroon	Paul Engo	1996	2008
India	P. Chandrasekhara Rao	1996	2017
Germany	Rüdiger Wolfrum	1996	2017
Japan	Soji Yamamoto	1996	2005
Ghana	Thomas Mensah	1996	2005
Italy	Tullio Treves	1996	2011
Brazil	Vicente Marotta Rangel	1996	2015
Russia	Vladimir Golitsyn	2008	2017

Cases

No.	Name	Applicant	Respondent	Case began	Case ended	Disposition
1	The M/V "Saiga" Case	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Guinea	November 13, 1997	December 4, 1997	Judgment on prompt release
2	The M/V "Saiga" (No. 2) Case	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Guinea	January 13, 1998	July 1, 1999	Judgment on merits
3	Southern Bluefin Tuna Cases	New Zealand	Japan	July 30, 1999	August 27, 1999	Order on provisional measures
4	Southern Bluefin Tuna Cases	Australia	Japan	July 30, 1999	August 27, 1999	Order on provisional measures
5	The "Camouco" Case	Panama	France	January 17, 2000	February 7, 2000	Judgment on prompt release
6	The "Monte Confurco" Case	Seychelles	France	November 27, 2000	December 18, 2000	Judgment on prompt release
7	Case concerning the Conservation and Sustainable Exploitation of Swordfish Stocks in the South-Eastern Pacific Ocean	Chile / European Union		December 19, 2000	December 16, 2009	Terminated at request of parties
8	The "Grand Prince" Case	Belize	France	March 21, 2001	April 20, 2001	Judgment on prompt release
9	The "Chaisiri Reefer 2" Case	Panama	Yemen	July 3, 2001	July 13, 2001	Terminated at request of parties
10	The MOX Plant Case	Ireland	United Kingdom	November 9, 2001	December 3, 2001	Order on provisional measures
11	The "Volga" Case	Russia	Australia	December 2, 2002	December 23, 2002	Judgment on prompt release
12	Case concerning Land Reclamation by Singapore in and Around the Straits of Johor	Malaysia	Singapore	September 5, 2003	October 8, 2003	Order on provisional measures
13	The "Juno Trader" Case	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Guinea-Bissau	November 18, 2004	December 18, 2004	Judgment on prompt release
14	The "Hoshinmaru" Case	Japan	Russia	July 6, 2007	August 6, 2007	Judgment on prompt release
15	The "Tomimaru" Case	Japan	Russia	July 6, 2007	August 6, 2007	Judgment on prompt release
16	Dispute concerning Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary between Bangladesh and Myanmar in the Bay of Bengal	Bangladesh / Myanmar		December 14, 2009	March 14, 2012	Judgment on merits
17	Responsibilities and Obligations of States Sponsoring Persons and Entities with Respect to Activities in the Area	International Seabed Authority		May 14, 2010	February 1, 2011	Advisory opinion
18	The M/V "Louisa" Case	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Spain	November 24, 2010	May 28, 2013	Judgment on merits
19	The M/V "Virginia G" Case	Panama / Guinea-Bissau		July 4, 2011	April 14, 2014	Judgment on merits
20	The "ARA Libertad" Case	Argentina	Ghana	November 14, 2012	December 15, 2012	Order on provisional measures
21	Request for an Advisory Opinion submitted by the Sub-Regional Fisheries Commission (SRFC)	Sub-Regional Fisheries Commission		March 28, 2013	April 2, 2015	Advisory opinion
22	The "Arctic Sunrise" Case	Netherlands	Russia	October 21, 2013	November 22, 2013	Order on provisional measures
23	Dispute concerning Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary between Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire in the Atlantic Ocean	Ghana / Ivory Coast		December 3, 2014	September 23, 2017	Judgment on merits
24	The "Enrica Lexie" Incident	Italy	India	July 21, 2015	August 24, 2015	Order on provisional measures
25	The M/V "Norstar" Case	Panama	Italy	December 17, 2015	April 10, 2019	Judgment on merits
26	Case concerning the Detention of Three Ukrainian Naval Vessels	Ukraine	Russia	April 16, 2019	May 25, 2019	Order on provisional measures
27	The M/T "San Padre Pio" Case	Switzerland	Nigeria	May 21, 2019	July 6, 2019	Order on provisional measures
28	Dispute concerning Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary between Mauritius and Maldives in the Indian Ocean	Mauritius / Maldives		September 24, 2019	Ongoing
29	The M/T "San Padre Pio" (No. 2) Case	Switzerland / Nigeria		December 17, 2019	December 29, 2021	Terminated at request of parties
30	The M/T "Heroic Idun" Case	Marshall Islands	Equatorial Guinea	November 10, 2022	November 15, 2022	Terminated at request of applicant
31	Request for an Advisory Opinion submitted by the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law	Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law		December 12, 2022	Ongoing
Notes The European Union replaced and succeeded the European Community as a party to the case on December 1, 2009.