Permanent Court of Arbitration

Permanent Court of Arbitration
Cour permanente d'arbitrage
Seal of the PCA
Map
52°05′12″N 4°17′44″E / 52.0866°N 4.2955°E / 52.0866; 4.2955
Established1899
JurisdictionWorldwide, 124 parties[1]
LocationThe Hague, Netherlands
Coordinates52°05′12″N 4°17′44″E / 52.0866°N 4.2955°E / 52.0866; 4.2955
Authorised byHague Peace Conference
Judge term length6 years (renewable)[2]
Number of positionsMaximum 4 per member state
Websitepca-cpa.org
Secretary-General
CurrentlyMarcin Czepelak[3]
Since2022[3]

The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) is a non-UN intergovernmental organization headquartered at the Peace Palace, in The Hague, Netherlands. Unlike a judicial court in the traditional sense, the PCA provides administrative support in international arbitrations involving various combinations of States, State entities, international organizations and private parties.[4] The cases span a range of legal issues involving territorial and maritime boundaries, sovereignty, human rights, international investment, and international and regional trade. The PCA is constituted through two separate multilateral conventions[5] with a combined membership of 124 Contracting Parties.[1] The PCA is not a United Nations agency,[6] but has been a United Nations observer since 1993.[7]

The PCA was established by the Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes, concluded at The Hague in 1899 during the first Hague Peace Conference of 1899.[8] The Conference had been convened at the initiative of emperor Nicolas II of Russia “with the object of seeking the most objective means of ensuring to all peoples the benefits of a real and lasting peace, and above all, of limiting the progressive development of existing armaments.”

The PCA's headquarters, the Peace Palace, was built from 1907 to 1913 to house the Permanent Court of Arbitration.[9][10]

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference MemberStates was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "115th Annual Report" (PDF). Permanent Court of Arbitration. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 August 2016. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  3. ^ a b "Polak nowym Sekretarzem Generalnym Stałego Trybunału Arbitrażowego w Hadze". PCA. Retrieved 2022-02-17.
  4. ^ "Services - PCA-CPA". Archived from the original on 2016-06-22.
  5. ^ "History". PCA. Archived from the original on 27 August 2016. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  6. ^ "United Nations stresses separation from Hague tribunal". Archived from the original on 2016-07-16. The United Nations clarified on its Chinese microblog yesterday that the tribunal that ruled against China's historic claims over the disputed South China Sea was not a UN agency.
  7. ^ "Intergovernmental Organizations". www.un.org. Archived from the original on 2017-05-23.
  8. ^ Schofield, Garth (2021), Lim, C. L. (ed.), "The Permanent Court of Arbitration: From 1899 to the Present", The Cambridge Companion to International Arbitration, Cambridge Companions to Law, Cambridge University Press, pp. 349–388, doi:10.1017/9781108635752.023, ISBN 978-1-108-48059-8
  9. ^ "ICJ Practical Information". International Court of Justice. Archived from the original on 2016-08-08. Retrieved 2018-12-23. Built between 1907 and 1913 for the Permanent Court of Arbitration thanks to a donation from Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish-born industrialist who made his fortune in the United States, the Peace Palace is situated in seven hectares of parkland in the heart of the city
  10. ^ "Peace Palace Carnegie Foundation". Peace Palace. Archived from the original on 2018-04-09. Retrieved 2018-12-23. He made his donation under the condition that the Peace Palace would not only house the Permanent Court of Arbitration, but also a public legal library