On 1 July 1999, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea delivered its first Judgment on the merits (See Press Release No. 23). A summary of the Judgment is reproduced below. A summary of the separate and dissenting opinions appended to the Judgment will be made available in a separate addendum.

Review of the proceedings and submissions of the parties (paras. 1-30 of the Judgment) The Tribunal begins by recalling that on 13 January 1998, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines filed a Request for the prescription of provisional measures concerning the arrest and detention of the oiltanker Saiga and its crew. The Request was based on article 290, paragraph 5, of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (prescription of provisional measures pending the constitution of an arbitral tribunal).