Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Lan Anh, director general of the East Sea Institute of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam (DAV), has become the first-ever Vietnamese candidate for the post of judge at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced.

Permanent Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Minh Vu made the announcement when attending the 34th meeting of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) held at the UN headquarters in New York, the U.S. from June 10-14. 

This is the first time that Vietnam has nominated its candidate to the ITLOS, making Assoc. Prof. Dr. Anh one of the Asian candidates running for the post of judge with a nine-year term, from 2026 to 2035, the foreign ministry said on Friday. 

Headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, the ITLOS has 21 judges specializing in marine law from different countries.

As an expert in international law and the law of the sea, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Anh focuses her research on ocean law and policy, maritime boundary delimitation, maritime security and safety, and Vietnam’s foreign policy with a focus on the East Vietnam Sea, according to the DAV.

She regularly offers legal and policy advice to Vietnam’s government agencies as well as international and regional organizations in different legal and foreign policy issues. 

Besides the East Sea Institute, the expert is also in charge of the Faculty of International Law of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam.

Within the framework of the meeting, Permanent Deputy FM Vu chaired an international seminar titled “Sea Level Rise in the Pacific: Current Situation, Legal Issues and Assessments from the Law of the Sea Perspective” and participated in the annual meeting of the UNCLOS Group of Friends on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the convention's entry into force. 

At the seminar, which attracted about 100 delegates from more than 60 countries, Permanent Deputy FM Vu highlighted the historical significance of the UNCLOS to the development of international law.  

As the ‘Constitution of Oceans,’ the UNCLOS is the most comprehensive legal framework for regulating all activities at sea, and serves as a basis for countries to cooperate in management of oceans and seas in an orderly and sustainable manner, Vu said.

Vietnam’s Permanent Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Minh Vu (C) attends the 34th meeting of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) at the UN headquarters in New York, the U.S. from June 10-14, 2024. Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Vietnam will join the 115 members of the UNCLOS Group of Friends, which was initiated and co-chaired by Vietnam and Germany since 2021, to promote multilateral dialogue and cooperation in implementing and protecting the universality of the UNCLOS, the diplomat affirmed.

At the seminar, Anh and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Hong Thao, a Vietnamese member of the UN’s International Law Commission (ILC), shared their opinions from the perspective of Vietnam, one of the coastal countries suffering most from climate change, including the risk of sea-level rise.

The two experts underscored the need to continue to comply with and fully implement the provisions of UNCLOS in the process of resolving emerging challenges in current sea and ocean governance such as marine environmental pollution, climate change and sea level rise.

With an aim to maintain stability and legal order at sea, they also called for support to the preservation of baselines, boundaries of maritime zones established from baselines, and maritime delimitation results agreed by countries through negotiations or established by decisions of international judicial agencies.

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