WEBINAR OVERVIEW
The Strait of Hormuz sits at the intersection of some of the most contested questions in contemporary international law. This webinar brings together three leading experts Dr. Nilufer Oral (Director, NUS Centre for International Law), Emeritus Professor Robert Beckman (Co-Head, Ocean Law and Policy at NUS Centre for International Law), and Dr. Alexander Lott (Research Professor, Norwegian Centre for the Law of the Sea, University of Trømso — The Arctic University of Norway) to examine the legal framework governing transit passage and innocent passage through straits used for international navigation and the rights and duties of belligerents under the law of naval warfare. Drawing on recent incidents in the Gulf region, the speakers will explore how UNCLOS provisions interact with rules of armed conflict at sea, and what lessons the Strait of Hormuz offers for the future of maritime order at sea. Dr. Tara Davenport (Co-Head, Ocean Law and Policy at NUS Centre for International Law) will be moderating the webinar.
PANELLISTS
Dr. Nilufer Oral (Director, NUS Centre for International Law)
Nilufer Oral is Director of the Centre of International Law at the National University of Singapore. She is a member of the UN International Law Commission (ILC) and served as Chairperson of the 74th session of the ILC. She is a Co-chair of the ILC Study Group on sea-level rise in relation to international law. She is a Member of the Curatorium of The Hague Academy of International Law and is an associate member of the Institut de Droit International. She was a legal advisor and climate change negotiator for Turkish MFA (2009-2016). She is currently a Member of the Committee of Legal Experts of the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (COSIS). She served a member of Council of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and was Co-Chair of the Oceans Specialist Group of the World Commission of Environmental Law. She has extensive academic publications.
Emeritus Professor Robert Beckman (Co-Head, Ocean Law and Policy at NUS Centre for International Law)
Robert Beckman is an Emeritus Professor at the Faculty of Law at the National University of Singapore, where he has taught courses in the field of international law since 1977, including Public International Law, International Legal Process, Ocean Law & Policy, International Regulation of the Global Commons and International Regulation of Shipping.
Prof Beckman was the founding Director of Centre for International Law (CIL), a university-level research institute at the National University of Singapore (NUS) that was established in 2010. He is currently the Co-Head of CIL’s Ocean Law and Policy programme.
Prof Beckman is one of the Directors of the Rhodes Academy of Oceans Law and Policy, a three-week summer course in law of the sea that is taught by an international faculty on the island of Rhodes in Greece. Prof Beckman has lectured at the Rhodes Academy since 2009.
Prof Beckman is also an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), where he serves as an advisor to the Maritime Security Programme of the Institute for Defence & Strategic Studies (IDSS)) and lectures on law of the sea to the Singapore Navy and at the Command Staff College.
Dr. Tara Davenport (Co-Head, Ocean Law and Policy at the NUS Centre for International Law)
Dr. Tara Davenport is Co-Head of the Ocean Law and Policy Programme at the Centre for International Law, National University of Singapore, Deputy Director of the Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law, an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore (NUS). She has an LLB from the London School of Economics, an LLM in Maritime Law from NUS, an LLM and JSD from Yale Law School. She received a Fulbright Scholarship in 2013 and the NUS Overseas Graduate Scholarship in 2014.
She is a qualified Advocate and Solicitor in Singapore. Her current research interests are public international law, law of the sea and international dispute settlement. She has written on the South China Sea disputes, submarine cables and deep seabed mining. She is a member of the Legal Working Group on Liability for Environmental Harm from Activities in the Area convened by the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Secretariat of the International Seabed Authority. She is also the Rapporteur for the International Law Association Study Committee on Submarine Cables and Pipelines.
Dr. Alexander Lott (Research Professor, Norwegian Centre for the Law of the Sea, University of Trømso — The Arctic University of Norway)
Alexander works as a research professor (forsker I) at the Norwegian Centre for the Law of the Sea, University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway and as an associate professor at the School of Law, University of Tartu, Estonia. His research interests include the law of the sea, environmental law, human rights, administrative law, international security law, and the law of naval warfare. Alexander is the author of the books "Hybrid Threats and the Law of the Sea" (Brill, 2022) and "The Estonian Straits: Exceptions to the Strait Regime of Innocent or Transit Passage" (Brill, 2018) as well as the editor and co-author of the anthology "Maritime Security Law in Hybrid Warfare" (Brill, 2024). He serves as the General Editor (with Nilüfer Oral) of the book series International Straits of the World. Alexander has been awarded the Marie Skłodowska-Curie individual fellowship by the European Commission and the Estonian President's scientific award (both in 2022). His previous work experience includes five years as a legal adviser at the constitutional review and administrative law chambers of the Estonian Supreme Court and the Ministry of Justice, as well as legislative drafting on the law of the sea and national defence.