International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea

The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) is an independent judicial body established under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Its mandate is the peaceful settlement of disputes concerning the interpretation or application of the Convention, together with matters assigned to it under other agreements. The Tribunal's casework spans contentious proceedings on maritime zones, navigation, the conservation and management of marine living resources, the protection of the marine environment, and marine scientific research, alongside advisory proceedings.

Work at the Tribunal sits at the intersection of international adjudication and the specialist law of the sea. Supporting the judicial function is a Registry that carries out the Tribunal's judicial and administrative activities, a specialist law-of-the-sea library serving research and public access, and a programme of publications through which judgments, orders, case materials, and press information are made publicly available.

ITLOS also runs training and capacity-building programmes on the law of the sea aimed at current and future generations of practitioners, including government officials, researchers, students, and recent graduates. Its operations are international in scope, within the framework of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and touch sectors including maritime and shipping, fisheries, marine environmental protection, marine scientific research, and government.