International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea

International Tribunal
for the Law of the Sea
Tribunal international du
droit de la mer (French)
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	Vladimir V. Golitsyn
• Vice President	Boualem Bouguetaia
Establishment
• UNCLOS adopted	10 December 1982
• UNCLOS in force	16 November 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 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 167 signatories, 166 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.

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).

Current judges

Country	Name	Inauguration	President	Vice president
Algeria	Boualem Bouguetaia	2008		2014–
Argentina	Elsa Kelly	2011
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
India	P. Chandrasekhara Rao	1996	1999–2002
Japan	Shunji Yanai	2005	2011–2014
Lebanon	Joseph Akl	1996		2005–2008
Malta	David Joseph Attard	2011
Poland	Stanisław Pawlak	2005
Russia	Vladimir Vladimirovich Golitsyn	2008	2014–
Senegal	Tafsir Malick Ndiaye	1996
South Africa	Albert J.Hoffmann	2005		2011–2014
South Korea	Jin-Hyun Paik	2009
Tanzania	James L. Kateka	2005
Trinidad and Tobago	Anthony Amos Lucky	2003
Ukraine	Markiyan Z. Kulyk	2011
Mexico	Alonso Gómez-Robledo Verduzco	2014
Iceland	Tomas Heidar	2014

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 Heywood Anderson	1996	2005
Austria	Helmut Türk	2005	2014
Grenada	L. Dolliver M. Nelson	1996	2014
Brazil	Vicente Marotta Rangel	1996	2015
Brazil	Antonio Cachapuz de Medeiros	2016	2016

Cases

No.	Name	Applicant	Respondent	Case began	Case ended	Disposition
1	The M/V "Saiga" Case	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Guinea	13 November 1997	4 December 1997	Judgment on prompt release
2	The M/V "Saiga" (No. 2) Case	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Guinea	13 January 1998	1 July 1999	Judgment on merits
3	Southern Bluefin Tuna Cases	New Zealand	Japan	30 July 1999	27 August 1999	Order on provisional measures
4	Southern Bluefin Tuna Cases	Australia	Japan	30 July 1999	27 August 1999	Order on provisional measures
5	The "Camouco" Case	Panama	France	17 January 2000	7 February 2000	Judgment on prompt release
6	The "Monte Confurco" Case	Seychelles	France	27 November 2000	18 December 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^[A]		19 December 2000	16 December 2009	Terminated at request of parties
8	The "Grand Prince" Case	Belize	France	21 March 2001	20 April 2001	Judgment on prompt release
9	The "Chaisiri Reefer 2" Case	Panama	Yemen	3 July 2001	13 July 2001	Terminated at request of parties
10	The MOX Plant Case	Ireland	United Kingdom	9 November 2001	3 December 2001	Order on provisional measures
11	The "Volga" Case	Russia	Australia	2 December 2002	23 December 2002	Judgment on prompt release
12	Case concerning Land Reclamation by Singapore in and Around the Straits of Johor	Malaysia	Singapore	5 September 2003	8 October 2003	Order on provisional measures
13	The "Juno Trader" Case	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Guinea-Bissau	18 November 2004	18 December 2004	Judgment on prompt release
14	The "Hoshinmaru" Case	Japan	Russia	6 July 2007	6 August 2007	Judgment on prompt release
15	The "Tomimaru" Case	Japan	Russia	6 July 2007	6 August 2007	Judgment on prompt release
16	Dispute concerning Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary between Bangladesh and Myanmar in the Bay of Bengal	Bangladesh / Myanmar		14 December 2009	14 March 2012	Judgment on merits
17	Responsibilities and Obligations of States Sponsoring Persons and Entities with Respect to Activities in the Area	International Seabed Authority		14 May 2010	1 February 2011	Advisory opinion
18	The M/V "Louisa" Case	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Spain	24 November 2010	28 May 2013	Judgment on merits
19	The M/V "Virginia G" Case	Panama / Guinea-Bissau		4 July 2011	14 April 2014	Judgment on merits
20	The "ARA Libertad" Case	Argentina	Ghana	14 November 2012	15 December 2012	Order on provisional measures
21	Request for an Advisory Opinion submitted by the Sub-Regional Fisheries Commission (SRFC)	Sub-Regional Fisheries Commission		28 March 2013	2 April 2015	Advisory opinion
22	The "Arctic Sunrise" Case	Netherlands	Russia	21 October 2013	22 November 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		3 December 2014	Ongoing
24	The "Enrica Lexie" Incident	Italy	India	21 July 2015	24 August 2015	Order on provisional measures
25	The MV "Norstar" Case	Panama	Italy	17 December 2015	Ongoing
Notes ^ The European Union replaced and succeeded the European Community as a party to the case on 1 December 2009.