Enhancing International Rule of Law

Pres Golitsyn at CIL-31Aug2015
From L to R: Professor Tommy Koh, Chairman of CIL’s Governing Board; His Excellency Judge Vladimir Golitsyn, President and Judge of ITLOS; Dr Philippe Gautier, Registrar of ITLOS; Professor Robert Beckman, CIL Director; and Mr Rod Bundy, CIL Governing Board Member.

Introduction

His Excellency Judge Vladimir Vladimirovich Golitsyn, President and Judge of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), delivered a Distinguished Speaker Lecture at the NUS Bukit Timah Campus on “Enhancing International Rule of Law” on 31 August 2015. Prior to the start of the lecture, guests were shown a short video on the jurisdiction and the role of the Tribunal in the settlement of disputes under the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Following the lecture, CIL Director Professor Robert Beckman moderated a lively Q&A sessionwhere students, academics, practitioners as well as government officials had an opportunity to ask the President of the Tribunal and its Registrar, Dr Philippe Gautier questions relating to the law of the sea. Earlier that morning, Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Law in Singapore, Mr Ng How Yue and the President of the Tribunal signed a Joint Declaration which marked a major move for Singapore to become a venue in Asia for proceedings in cases before a special chamber of the Tribunal or before the Tribunal to settle disputes relating to the law of the sea.

For the ITLOS press release on the signing of the joint declaration, click here. For the ITLOS video, click here.

About the Speaker

President Golitsyn is a national of the Russian Federation. He has been active in the field of International Law for almost four decades. At the Government level, he has served as Head of the Division of Public International Law in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the former USSR and as head or member of delegations at various negotiations on fishery, navigation and maritime boundary matters, as well as the Arctic and Antarctica. At the United Nations, where he has worked for 25 years, he has been involved in a wide range of legal, in particular environmental and maritime matters, as well as such issues as the establishment and implementation of the oil-for-food programme for Iraq, negotiation of arrangements related to the Lockerbie case, etc. President Golitsyn is currently Vice-President of the Russian Association of Maritime Law and also works as Professor of international law at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations and Moscow State University.

President Golitsyn has been a member of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea since 1 October 2008 and has served as President of the Tribunal since 1 October 2014.