6 March 2024: CIL Director Dr Nilüfer Oral was Invited to Speak at the Symposium on Law of the Sea: Climate Change and Other Recent Developments Organized by the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge

This event, co-organized by the Lauterpacht Centre with the Institute of Juridical and Political Sciences at the University of Lisbon, focused on important recent developments in the area of the law of the sea. This is a dynamically developing area of public international law, marked in recent years by action taken to address the challenges of such phenomena as rising sea levels and environmental pollution. The highlight of 2023 was the successful completion of negotiations on the UN High Seas Treaty (on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction). Traditional disputes relating to maritime delimitation (of which the renowned South China Sea arbitration may be an example) have been complemented by promoting climate change action through resort to the advisory jurisdiction of ITLOS (a request for an advisory opinion submitted by the Commission of Small Island States in December 2022) and the ICJ (at the initiative of the small island state Vanuatu, a proposed request for an advisory opinion on state obligations on climate change). The symposium explored the particularities and efficiency of dispute resolution and treaty making in the law of the sea. It provided a forum for analysis and debate also on other developments in this field, such as the blockade of Black Sea ports.

More about the event at the link: https://www.lcil.cam.ac.uk/press/events/2024/03/symposium-law-sea-climate-change-and-other-recent-developments