Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger presented the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany to Judge Thomas A. Mensah in a special ceremony at the Ambassador’s Residence on 27 March 2007.

One of the outstanding figures of international maritime law of the past decades, Judge Mensah has rendered great service to the Federal Republic of Germany.

Judge Mensah acted for the International Maritime Organisation as legal adviser and as Assistant Secretary General between 1968 – 1990. He was later inaugurated as first President of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg on 18 October 1996. His contribution was instrumental in setting up the institution in Hamburg, thereby acknowledging Germany’s great maritime tradition and reflecting its exceptional position in world trade.

Ambassador Ischinger said: “By doing so much to establish this great institution, by enabling Hamburg to take up its proper role at the heart of the world’s maritime regime Judge Thomas Mensah has rendered great service, not only to the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, but to the Federal Republic of Germany.”