Slovenia sends memorandum over sea dispute with Croatia

Slovenia has sent its official memorandum over a border dispute with Croatia to the Hague-based international arbitration tribunal, the Slovenian Press Agency reported on Monday. Slovenia and Croatia, both separated from then-Yugoslavia in 1991, have been in dispute over the northern Adriatic bay of Piran. Slovenia insists that it has access to international waters, which qualifies it as a maritime nation. In November 2009, Slovenia and Croatia signed an agreement in Stockholm, Sweden, agreeing to resolve their maritime border dispute through international arbitration. The president of the tribunal will be Gilbert Guillaume of France, who served as president of the International Court of Justice in 2000-2003. In addition, German jurist Bruno Simma, who serves as a judge on the International Court of Justice, and Vaughan Lowe, a leading British barrister and professor of public international law at the University of Oxford, are also members of the tribunal. The tribunal was reportedly to make a decision over the border dispute in 2015.