Withers represents Equatorial Guinea at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea

International law firm Withers has represented the Republic of Equatorial Guinea in a case brought by the Republic of the Marshall Islands under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in an eight-day hearing before the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea in Hamburg, Germany.

The dispute concerns the Heroic Idun, a 336m crude oil tanker flagged to the Marshall Islands which was intercepted in August 2022 by Equatorial Guinea in the Gulf of Guinea at the request of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, before the vessel and its crew were returned to Nigeria. In April 2023, Equatorial Guinea and the Marshall Islands agreed to submit the dispute to a Special Chamber of the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea.

The Withers team was led by Professor Hussein Haeri KC from the firm's London's office and Ms Floriane Lavaud from the firm's New York office, with a team including senior associate Clàudia Baró Huelmo, associates Maanya Tandon, Sudipta Purkayastha and Eva Keita and paralegal Niccolo Dell'Alba. Equatorial Guinea's legal team included Professor Dapo Akande (Barrister at Essex Court Chambers, Chichele Professor of Public International Law, University of Oxford, Member of the International Law Commission) and Professor Antonios Tzanakopoulos (Professor of Public International Law, University of Oxford).