CIL Director Robert Beckman has been appointed as a member of the Management Committee for the newly set up Maritime Institute@NUS (MI@NUS) for a 2-year term commencing on 1 August 2012.

This penultimate session of the CIL Fireside Chat Series for 2012, brought together diplomats who have represented Singapore at the UN and a leading expert on the UN to share their perspectives on how the UN operates and how Singapore, as a small state, can influence decision making at this complex body.

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.

At General Meeting of SIEL held during the SIEL 2012 conference in Singapore, Assoc Prof Michael Ewing-Chow, WTO Chair and Head, Trade/Investment Law & Policy, CIL, was elected to the Executive Council of SIEL. He will serve a term of 3 years from 13 July 2012.

The National University of Singapore (NUS) became the first University in the Asia-Pacific region to host the biennial conference of the Society of International Economic Law (SIEL) last week. SIEL is the leading global association of international economic law academics and practioners. Organised by the Centre for International Law (CIL) and hosted by the Faculty of Law (NUS Law), the conference took place at the Bukit Timah Campus from 12-14 July 2012. 272 delegates representing more than 150 institutions from over 50 countries took part.

CIL Patron Prof S Jayakumar, CIL Director Robert Beckman and CIL Senior Research Fellow Youna Lyons participated in the 36th Annual Conference of the Center for Oceans Law and Policy (COLP) In Halifax, Nova Scotia, from 21-22 June 2012. Prof S Jayakumar delivered the Opening Address at the Conference with a paper entitled “The Continental Shelf Regime under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea: Reflections after Thirty Years”. Prof Beckman made a presentation on the “Global Legal Regime on the Decommissioning of Offshore Installations and Structures” and Youna Lyons made a presentation on “Abandoned Offshore Installations in Southeast Asia and the Opportunity for ‘Rigs-to-Reefs’.”

CIL hosted a visit by the Commission for External Relations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Viet Nam on 6 June 2012.

CIL was pleased to host the visit of the students and lecturers from Atma Jaya University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, on 15 June 2012.

NUS & CIL will host the inaugural Singapore International Arbitration Academy from 26 November to 14 December 2012. The Singapore International Arbitration Academy is slated to become Asia’s premier arbitration training programme.

The National University of Singapore (NUS) is pleased to announce that Mr J. Christopher Thomas, Q.C. will join its Centre for International Law (CIL) as a Senior Principal Research Fellow and the NUS Faculty of Law as a Visiting Professor.

CIL has recently launched a new TREATY STATUS DATABASE to complement its documents database.

CIL Director Robert Beckman took part in the first edition of Channel NewsAsia’s Perspectives programme at 8.00 PM on 29 April 2012. The panel discussed issues such as the rise of China and the South China Sea territorial disputes.