15 Settlement of Disputes

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the dispute settlement system established in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOS Convention). It provides an overview of the dispute settlement provisions of the LOS Convention and how they were negotiated. The chapter examines one of the components of the Convention's system of third-party dispute settlement, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), which began operating after the Convention entered into force in 1994. The chapter particularly focuses on the Tribunal's structure, jurisdiction, and relationship to other dispute settlement bodies. In earlier drafts of the Convention, disputes related to seabed mining were originally subject to a special Seabed Tribunal. However, once agreement was reached on an ITLOS, composed of twenty-one members elected at a meeting of all the parties to the Convention, many states became reluctant to maintain two separate tribunals.Keywords: International Seabed Authority; ITLOS; Law of the Sea (LOS) Convention; sea disputes; seabed mining