THE HAGUE, 5 DECEMBER 2014

Arbitral Tribunal issues Procedural Order No. 4 (Bifurcation) and Award on Jurisdiction; Arbitral Tribunal poses questions to the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

On 21 November 2014, the Arbitral Tribunal issued Procedural Order No. 4 (Bifurcation) stating that it considered that the statement made by the Russian Federation in its Note Verbale dated 22 October 2013, relying on the declaration it made upon ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (“Convention”), that it “does not accept” this arbitration, constitutes a plea concerning the Arbitral Tribunal’s jurisdiction which possesses an exclusively preliminary character (“Russia’s Plea Concerning Jurisdiction”).

After having sought the views of the Parties and given them a full opportunity to be heard on the matter, the Arbitral Tribunal decided to rule on Russia’s Plea Concerning Jurisdiction as a preliminary question without holding a hearing.

On 26 November 2014, the Arbitral Tribunal issued its Award on Jurisdiction. The Arbitral Tribunal unanimously held that the declaration made by Russia upon ratification of the Convention does not have the effect of excluding the present dispute from the compulsory dispute settlement procedures entailing binding decisions set out in Section 2 of Part XV of the Convention, and, therefore, does not exclude the present dispute from the jurisdiction of the Arbitral Tribunal. The Arbitral Tribunal reserved all other issues not decided in the Award on Jurisdiction, including any other issues concerning jurisdiction, admissibility, and merits, for further consideration.