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Profile
She is a Senior Research Fellow with the Ocean Law and Policy Programme of the Centre for International Law (CIL), National University of Singapore (NUS). Her dual expertise in law and marine sciences uniquely positions her to integrate these fields for marine policy-making purposes and has led her to spearhead and coordinate several multidisciplinary research projects at CIL including the prospects for re-use of obsolete offshore installations as artificial reefs in Southeast Asia, sensitivity mapping for Singapore in the context of oil spill preparedness and response, and the mapping of shallow features in the South China Sea.
In addition to academic research work and publications, she supports and participates to global and regional intergovernmental meetings on the protection of the marine environment as an observer. She is Chair of the Board of the Advisory Committee on Protection of the Sea (ACOPS) and environmental advisory committee since 1952, with a consultative status at the IMO, the London Convention and Protocol, the Arctic Council and OSPAR. She is also involved in the teaching of university students and training of government delegates. She has spent the last 10 years of her career in Asia and is, in parallel, completing a PhD with the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS) at the University of Wollongong titled ‘Identifying sensitive marine areas in the South China Sea and under international law’. Her legal qualifications are two bachelors degrees in procedural and international law, an LLM in international law from University Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne and entry to the Paris Bar obtained in 1992. She later studied marine sciences at the College of Ocean and Fisheries and in addition was granted a Masters in Marine Affairs from the School of Marine Affairs of the University of Washington in Seattle.
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Research Interests
- Marine Environmental Law
- Offshore oil and gas in Southeast Asia, especially transboundary pollution from offshore activities, offshore decommissioning and the opportunity for rigs to reefs
- Use of satellite imagery to inform marine environmental management through habitat mapping and maritime boundary disputes on remote features
- Sensitivity mapping for oil spill response and preparedness
- Marine spatial planning and integrated coastal management
- The protection of marine sensitive environments in the seas of Southeast Asia
- Governance and ocean policy in Southeast Asia
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Selected Publications
- Y Lyons, Theresa Su and Mei Lin Neo (2019) A review of research on marine plastics in Southeast Asia: Who does what? 2019. Available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/a-review-of-research-on-marine-plastics-in-sea-who-does-what.
- Y Lyons (2019) Identifying sensitive areas in the High Seas: A review of scientific criteria adopted under international law, in High Seas Governance: Gaps and Challenges, R Beckman et al. (eds), doi:10.1163/9789004373303_005
- Y Lyons, R Beckman, LM Chou and D Huang (2019) Moving from Marine Protected Areas to area-based management initiatives in the South China Sea, International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law (accepted – in press);
- Y Lyons, D Cheong, ML Neo and HF Wong (2018) Managing giant clams in the South China Sea, International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law 33(3)
- Y Lyons and D Cheong, ‘The international legal framework for the Protection and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity, in Biodiversity and the Law, C McManis and B Ong (eds), 2017, Routledge
- Youna Lyons, ‘Transboundary Pollution from Offshore Activities: A Study of the Montara Oil Spill’, in Transboundary Pollution: Evolving Issues of International Law and Policy, 2015, Edward Elgar
- Youna Lyons, ‘Regulation of Offshore Hydrocarbon Exploration and Exploitation under International Law’, in Handbook in Maritime Regulation and Enforcement, S Kay and R Warner (eds), 2015, Routledge
- Youna Lyons (2014) ‘The New Offshore Oil and Gas Installation Abandonment Wave and the International Rules on Removal and Dumping’, The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law 29: 480-520
- Y Lyons (2014) Prospects for Satellite Imagery of Insular Features and Surrounding Marine Habitats in the South China Sea, Marine Policy45: 146-155