The Center for Oceans Law and Policy, University of Virginia School of Law, annually hosts a conference on a topical subject of interest to the global law of the sea community. The twenty-fifth meeting of the Center was co-sponsored by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), and held in March 2001, at its Hamburg headquarters. The conference theme, Current Marine Environmental Issues and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, featured two days of presentations from many of the world's foremost experts. The published conference proceedings include papers by Satya N. Nandan, Secretary-General, International Seabed Authority; P. Chandrasekhara Rao, President, ITLOS; most of the ITLOS judges; and a number of private practitioners concerned with the marine environment. Topics discussed focused on the past, present, and future dispute settlement activities of ITLOS and the regulatory consequences in Europe as a result of the Erika oil spill on 12 December, 1999. Current Marine Environmental Issues and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea is a significant collection of authoritative commentary, compiled through the cooperation of an academic institution and an international organization specifically dedicated to peaceful settlement of disputes in the world's oceans.

Translated by: H.L. Sutcliffe, M. McDonald