Prof. James Crawford selected as Chairman of the Arbitral Tribunal

May 30, 2000

Article I, section 2 of the Amended Special Agreement of February 28, 2000, between Mr. Lance Paul Larsen and the Hawaiian Kingdom Government states that: "The Arbitral Tribunal shall consist of three (3) arbitrators, one (1) to be chosen by each of the Parties by their appointing authority, Mr. Keoni Agard, and the two (2) arbitrators thus appointed shall choose the third arbitrator who will act as the presiding arbitrator of the tribunal."

According to this agreement, Mr. Lance Paul Larsen, by his Attorney, did select Mr. Gavan Griffith, a Queen's Counsel and former Solicitor-General for the Australian Government, and the Hawaiian Kingdom Government did select Prof. Christopher Greenwood, Queen's Counsel, and Professor of International Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Both individuals accepted the appointments. Prof. Greenwood was also selected by the United Nations General Assembly in 1998 to draft a report on the laws of war and occupation as part of the centennial celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 1899 Hague Conventions.

Thereafter, the two selected arbitrators (Prof. Greenwood and Mr. Griffith) did select Prof. James Crawford, Queen's Counsel, as the Chairman of the Arbitral Tribunal. As Chairman he is responsible for the drafting of the decision of the Tribunal and the drafting of the Arbitration Award. In 1996, Prof. James Crawford was elected by the United Nations General Assembly, together with 33 other international law experts from around the world, to the International Law Commission. Members of the International Law Commission serve a term of 5 years.

The Commission's members are: Husain Al-Baharna (Bahrain), Awn Al-Khasawneh (Jordan), Gaetano Arangio-Ruiz (Italy), Julio Barboza (Argentina), Mohamed Bennouna (Morocco), Derek William Bowett (United Kingdom), Carlos Calero Rodrigues (Brazil), James Crawford (Australia), John de Saram (Sri Lanka), Gudmundur Eiriksson (Iceland), Nabil Elaraby (Egypt), Salifou Fomba (Mali), Mehmet Guney (Turkey), Qizhi He (China), Kamil Idris (Sudan), Andreas Jacovides (Cyprus), Peter Kabatsi (Uganda), Mochtar Kusuma-Atmadja (Indonesia), Ahmed Mahiou (Algeria), Vaclav Mikulka (Czech Republic), Guillaume Pambou-Tchivounda (Gabon), Alain Pellet (France), Pemmaraju Sreenivasa Rao (India), Edilbert Razafindralambo (Madagascar), Patrick Lipton Robinson (Jamaica), Robert Rosenstock (United States), Alberto Szekely (Mexico), Doudou Thiam (Senegal), Christian Tomuschat (Germany), Edmundo Vargas Carreno (Chile), Igor Ivanovich Lukashuk (Russian Federation), Francisco Villagran Kramer (Guatemala), Chusei Yamada (Japan), and Alexander Yankov (Bulgaria).

The International Law Commission was established by the General Assembly in 1947 to codify customary international law and to promote the codification and progressive development of international law in areas where customary law did not exist or had not sufficiently evolved. Its expert members represent the world's principal legal systems. The Commission also designates special rapporteurs to propose work programmes and draft articles on topics chosen by the Commission itself or referred to it by the General Assembly.

The International Law Commission established a working group on "State Responsibility" in 1997, the Commission also appointed James Crawford as its new Special Rapporteur. Hans Klingenberg (Denmark), speaking on behalf of the Nordic countries, said they attached great importance to the successful conclusion of work on State responsibility — a monumental project that constituted the last major building block of the international legal order, alongside the law of treaties and the law of peaceful settlement of disputes. It had taken the International Law Commission 48 years to adopt in 1996, on first reading, the draft articles on State Responsibility. They hoped the second reading would be completed within the term of office of the Commission's present members, by the year 2001.

See United Nations 6 May 1996 Press Release: INTERNATIONAL LAW COMMISSION TO HOLD FORTY-EIGHTH SESSION GENEVA, 6 MAY - 26 JULY.

The duly constituted members of the Arbitral Tribunal are all very competent, qualified and well versed individuals in the areas of international law that are applicable in this case.

See Letter of Correspondence from Appointing Authority to the Court and the Parties concerning the selection of James Crawford as the Presiding Arbitrator for the Tribunal, May 28, 2000