In Memoriam –  J Ashley Roach

Captain J Ashley Roach passed away on 20 August 2024 at the age of 85. He will be fondly remembered as a dear friend and mentor by the colleagues he worked with at the Centre for International Law (CIL), a university level research centre at the National University of Singapore.

CIL was established in 2011 to enable Singapore and the Asia-Pacific region to play a more significant role in the promotion and development of international law. One of the first areas that CIL decided to focus on was ocean law and policy, and the first external consultant that we engaged to assist us was Captain J. Ashley Roach, who had retired from the State Department in 2009.

Ash Roach provided invaluable advice and assistance to CIL in developing its expertise in many areas of law of the sea, including piracy and maritime crimes, passage regimes, marine environmental governance and maritime boundary delimitation. He was also instrumental in establishing the annual CIL-ANCORS Workshop on Maritime Boundaries which CIL organizes in partnership with the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS). While working with CIL he edited one book (Lewis Alexander, Navigational Restrictions within the LOS Context, Brill 2016) and he co-edited three others. 

Ash was instrumental in developing CIL’s research under the MPA-CIL Oceans Governance Research Programme from 2016 – 2019. One of his most significant contributions to CIL and Singapore concerned governance in the Arctic. He made a series of public presentations on Arctic Governance, and in 2016 he drafted the CIL Guide to Arctic Issues for Arctic Council Observers, which is available on the CIL website. In addition, he made several presentations on the legal issues that had to be addressed for the negotiation of a new treaty on Biological Diversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction.

CIL’s relationship with Ash was reduced as a result of COVID-19 and his health issues, but we were still able to call on him for presentations on one cutting-edge issue in 2021 – the legal issues arising from the development of maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS).

Everyone at CIL found Ash a pleasure to work with. He was not only a great colleague, but he served as a mentor to several young CIL researchers who were beginning their careers in ocean Law.  Among the young researchers he worked closely with while at CIL are Dr Tara Davenport of CIL and the NUS Faculty of Law, Dr Zhen Sun of the World Maritime University, and Dr Leo Bernard and Dr Kristine Kraabel of ANCORS. Ash will also be especially missed by Professor Bob Beckman, the founding director of CIL.