State-to-State disputes

We represent clients in State-to-State disputes before international courts and tribunals, in mediation and in negotiations.  Our lawyers have appeared (including as lead or coordinating counsel) in ten cases at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) (both contentious and advisory proceedings).  We have appeared also in institutional and ad hoc State-to-State arbitral proceedings (including under UNCLOS), the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), multiple domestic courts and in treaty-based neutral expert proceedings.  The firm’s State clients have enjoyed a positive outcome (win or positive settlement) in all concluded State-to-State disputes in which it has acted.

A number of our State representations have involved disputes over territorial sovereignty, international humanitarian law and the law of armed conflict, the delimitation of land and maritime boundaries, environmental degradation and human rights. We are uniquely equipped to assist with the management, coordination and advocacy of such complex, multifaceted and sensitive cases.

Highlights of our lawyers’ experience in State-to-State disputes include:

  • representing Azerbaijan in two cases before the ICJ under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
  • representing Barbados in its UNCLOS maritime boundary arbitration against the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, under the aegis of the PCA
  • representing Colombia in its case against Ecuador before the ICJ concerning Aerial Herbicide Spraying
  • representing a Middle Eastern State in contentious and advisory proceedings before the ICJ
  • advising an Asian State in a case before the ICJ relating to sovereignty over small island features
  • advising a Middle Eastern State in the mediation of a land and maritime boundary dispute
  • advising a northern European State in a number of proceedings before the ECHR and CJEU
  • advising Somalia in a dispute against Kenya concerning delimitation of a maritime boundary in the Indian Ocean
  • advising an Asian State in an ad hoc arbitration under UNCLOS relating to maritime entitlements