UN LAW OF THE SEA TRIBUNAL HEARS CASE OF JAPANESE FISHING VESSELS

UN LAW OF THE SEA TRIBUNAL HEARS CASE OF JAPANESE FISHING VESSELS
New York, Jul 19 2007 5:00PM
The United Nations International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea today commenced a hearing on cases involving two Japanese fishing vessels.

According to a Tribunal press release, Japan said in submitted applications that the ships – the Hoshinmaru and the Tomimaru – were boarded by Russian officials from a coastguard patrol boat in the Russian exclusive economic zone for allegedly violating the country's fisheries legislation.

The Tomimaru was boarded last 31 October and its crew has been allowed to leave, while the crew of the Hoshinmaru, boarded this year on 1 June, remains in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskii where both vessels are currently detained.

There are currently 155 States Parties to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which entered into force in 1994 and established the independent 21-member Tribunal based in Hamburg, Germany.
2007-07-19 00:00:00.000

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