The French judge resigned as Slovenia's appointee to the tribunal on 3 August, according to a press release circulated by the Permanent Court of Arbitration today. He is said to have told the other members of the tribunal that he had agreed to the appointment in the hope that it “would help restore confidence between the parties and the arbitral tribunal and to allow the process to continue normally, with the consent of both parties.”

However, following Croatia’s decision to withdraw from the arbitral process, Judge Abraham acknowledged that the “expectation” had not been met and considered that it was “no longer appropriate” for him to serve as arbitrator.

The short-lived appointment was announced on 28 July, five days after Slovenia's original appointee Jernej Sekolec resigned from the tribunal under a cloud. The well-known Slovenian arbitrator and former UNCITRAL secretary had been exposed by the Croatian press apparently sharing confidential details of the tribunal’s deliberations with a Slovenian minister in tapped phone conversations.

The conversations also include discussion of how to influence tribunal members and place additional information before them.

Slovenia moved to appoint a replacement rapidly, ahead of a session of the Croatian parliament on 29 July to consider Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic’s proposal that the state should withdraw from the arbitration in light of Sekolec’s conduct.

However, the state’s high profile appointment failed to persuade parliament to continue with the case. Milanovic’s motion was upheld by 141 votes to 0.

On 30 July, Croatia’s own appointee to the arbitral tribunal, Budislav Vukas, resigned, apparently in response to his country’s decision to withdraw.

The following day, Croatia wrote to the tribunal saying that it could not “further continue the process in good faith” and announcing its termination of the 2009 arbitration agreement signed by the two countries in accordance with the Vienna Convention of the Law of Treaties. The state has not appointed a replacement arbitrator.

According to the PCA press release, it now falls to Slovenia to appoint another arbitrator to replace Judge Abraham within 15 days, in line with the arbitration agreement. It says that Slovenia has been invited to present its observations on Croatia’s letter of 31 July but has yet to do so.

The remaining members of the tribunal are Gilbert Guillaume of France, Bruno Simma of Germany and Vaughan Lowe QC of the UK, all of whom were appointed to the tribunal by the European Commission in 2009 in accordance with the arbitration agreement.

Guillaume and Simma are also former ICJ judges; Guillaume was the court's president.

The arbitration is to resolve the countries' competing claims to an area of sea in the Bay of Piran in the northern Adriatic, which would provide Slovenia with its only access to international waters, and to adjacent coastline. According to the tapped conversations between Sekolec and the Slovenian minister, the tribunal is to award Slovenia two-thirds of the waters sought in the bay.

It is likely that the case will proceed despite Croatia’s refusal to participate further. The PCA is already playing host to cases against China and Russia in which the states are playing no part.