CIL continued its third year of association with the prestigious Rhodes Academy of Oceans Law and Policy which convenes annually in Rhodes, Greece, at the 17th Session this year, held from 1-20 July 2012.
This year’s instructors included six Members of the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), namely Judges R. Wolfrum, T. Treves, V. Golitsyn, J. H. Paik, A. Hoffman and J.P. Cot. In addition, prominent legal experts in Ocean Law and Policy such as John N. Moore, Robert Smith, David Balton, Alex Oude Elferink, T. H. Heidar and A. Jacovides accepted invitations to give lectures on various topics, including the Navigation & Passage, the EEZ and Continental Shelf regimes, Maritime Boundary Delimitation, Fisheries and the Marine Environment. P. Reichler offered a litigator’s perspective of Dispute Settlement. Further, extralegal perspectives from John N. Moore, Larry Meyers, Stephen Scott and Barbara Moore added value to this year’s course, enabling students to understand the law of the sea in its broader historical, geological and geomorphological context.
For the third consecutive year, CIL’s Director and Head of its Ocean Law & Policy Programme, Prof Robert Beckman, was invited to join the faculty. He delivered seminars on Options for Resolving Disputes, the South China Sea claims, and Submarine Cables and assisted Robert Smith and Alex Oude Elferink in the supervision of a Workshop on Negotiating and Drafting a Maritime Boundary Delimitation Agreement.
Forty-nine participants benefitted from the course this year. Many were legal and policy officers from various countries. Several were officers from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including two Singaporean delegates, Borg Tsien Tham and Akshay Kothari.
CIL sponsored two of its researchers to attend the Rhodes Academy: Ms Youna Lyons and Mr Sanjay Pala Krishnan. In addition, CIL sponsored H.E. Mr Hang Naron, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Cambodia and Permanent Vice-Chairman to the Supreme National Economic Council (SNOC). The latter was part of CIL’s initiative to promote capacity building in international law in the ASEAN Member States. CIL sponsored a Vietnamese scholar in 2010 (more information) and a Myanmar legal officer in 2011 (more information).
For more information on the Rhodes Academy, click here.