Japanese elected as President of ITLOS

A Japanese judge has been elected as President of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

The Hamburg-based maritime tribunal said on Saturday that Judge Shunji Yanai was elected to succeed President Jose Luis Jesus for the period of 2011 to 2014.

Yanai has been serving as a judge of the tribunal since 2005 and is the first Japanese to assume the presidency.

The tribunal was established in 1996 under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to deal with international maritime disputes.

The importance of the tribunal is increasing as disputes over territorial waters and marine resources are on the rise.

For example, in July the Philippine government proposed that China take territorial issues in the South China Sea to the tribunal.