International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea


The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea 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 at 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 2012, 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 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 .
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 .
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 .

Holdouts

Following a Reagan administration decision, the United States remained a holdout until at least 2012. Some concern was expressed in 2012 over the potential of the ITLOS to enforce its decisions related to greenhouse gas emissions.
Iran is a signatory, but not a party, to the UNCLOS. In the case of the Stena Impero, a lawyer opined that:

Current judges

CountryNameInaugurationPresidentVice president
SenegalTafsir Malick Ndiaye1996
Cape VerdeJosé Luis Jesus19992008-2011
FranceJean-Pierre Cot2002
Trinidad and TobagoAnthony Amos Lucky2003
PolandStanisław Pawlak2005
JapanShunji Yanai20052011-2014
TanzaniaJames L. Kateka2005
South AfricaAlbert J.Hoffmann20052011-2014
ChinaZhiguo Gao2008
AlgeriaBoualem Bouguetaia20082014-2017
South KoreaJin-Hyun Paik20092017-
ArgentinaElsa Kelly2011
MaltaDavid Joseph Attard20112017-
UkraineMarkiyan Z. Kulyk2011
MexicoAlonso Gómez-Robledo Verduzco2014
IcelandTomas Heidar2014
ParaguayÓscar Cabello Sarubbi2017
IndiaNeeru Chadha2017
ThailandKriangsak Kittichaisaree2017
RussiaRoman Kolodkin2017
NetherlandsLiesbeth Lijnzaad2017

Former judges

CountryNameInaugurationUntil
LebanonJoseph Akl19962017
United KingdomDavid Heywood Anderson19962005
Trinidad and TobagoLennox Fitzroy Ballah20022003
CameroonPaul Bamela Engo19962008
ArgentinaHugo Caminos19962011
BrazilAntonio Cachapuz de Medeiros20162016
IndiaP. Chandrasekhara Rao19962017
IcelandGuðmundur Eiríksson19962002
RussiaVladimir Vladimirovich Golitsyn20082017
RussiaAnatoly Lazarevich Kolodkin19962008
BelizeEdward Arthur Laing19962001
BrazilVicente Marotta Rangel19962015
BulgariaAlexander Yankov19962011
ChinaGuangjian Xu20012007
ChinaLihai Zhao19962000
CroatiaBudislav Vukas19962005
GhanaThomas A. Mensah19962005
ItalyTullio Treves19962011
JapanSoji Yamamoto19962005
South KoreaChoon-Ho Park19962008
TanzaniaJoseph Sinde Warioba19962008
TunisiaMohamed Mouldi Marsit19962005
AustriaHelmut Türk20052014
GrenadaL. Dolliver M. Nelson19962014
GermanyRüdiger Wolfrum19962017

Cases