Researchers' Activities

Senior Research Fellow Youna Lyons was invited as a keynote speaker to the International Conference on Plastics in the Marine Environment (ICPME) 2018, hosted by the National University of Singapore on 5–7 December 2018. The programme of the conference provided a comprehensive discussion of issues related to the introduction of plastic in the marine environment from the perspectives of plastic chemists and biochemists, marine ecologists, oceanographers, human health, pollution monitoring, and research on marine ecological and socio-economic impacts. It also included a discussion of the international legal framework and possible paths to tackle the issue, including the development of a circular economy and other solutions for the future.

Ms Lyons presented the status and prospects of the international legal framework to manage marine plastics in Southeast Asia. The presentation identified the possible angles of an ocean law and policy approach to the issue of marine plastic pollution and provided an overview of the international legal framework. It emphasised relevant provisions from the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which can be used to frame scientific research on marine plastic in order to inform the content of states’ obligation to protect and preserve the marine environment in this context. Ongoing working groups in different international and regional bodies and their respective importance were also highlighted. The presentation slides can be downloaded here.

CIL sponsored a panel on ’Legal and Institutional Mechanisms to Manage the Marine Environment in the Seas of Southeast Asia: Status and Way Forward’ at the Sixth East Asian Seas Congress (EAS Congress) in Iloilo, Philippines on 27 November 2018. The theme of the EAS Congress this year was ‘25 Years of Partnerships for Healthy Oceans, People and Economies: Moving as One with the Global Ocean Agenda’. The event is co-organised every three years by the Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA) and includes a Ministerial Forum on the last day of the meeting.

This CIL-sponsored session aimed to investigate and discuss the extent to which regional institutions can and may foster a common understanding of applicable international law and facilitate implementation. An underlying question in this investigation was to assess the possibility of following an ASEAN way and bypassing the need for a regional, binding and overarching agreement for the protection of the marine environment.

The CIL panel session comprised presentations by CIL researchers—Amber Rose Maggio, Dita Liliansa and Youna Lyons—followed by comments by Raphael Lotilla, former Director of PEMSEA and Somboon Siriraksophon, SEAFEC Project Director. The three speakers focussed on the following topics:

• principles and rules of international marine law applicable to the seas of Southeast Asia;
• regional institutions and the protection of the marine environment in Southeast Asia; and
• application of international marine law to the seas of Southeast Asia, with the examples of sensitive marine areas, the IOSEA Marine Turtle Memorandum of Understanding and Fisheries Refugia.

The speakers brought together the overarching international legal framework, comparisons of regional cooperative mechanisms and specific examples of application of the international legal framework by regional bodies. Click here for the session’s highlights.

This comparison of regional institutions and coordination mechanisms is part of an ongoing study of regional cooperation mechanisms for the protection of the marine environment in Southeast Asia. It will be updated as CIL’s research progresses. Click on the links below for more information on the panel. 

• Table of international environmental law treaties applicable to the protection of the marine environment in Southeast Asia 
• Diagram of regional bodies involved in the protection of the marine environment in Southeast Asia 
• Map of sensitive marine areas in Southeast Asia under international law
• Session brochure

Youna Lyons and Dita Liliansa participated in the Indonesian Centre for the Law of the Sea (ICLOS)  Conference on Artificial Islands Beyond National Jurisdiction. The conference was organised by Universitas Padjadjaran in Bandung, Indonesia.

Ms Lyons was invited as a speaker and gave a presentation on ‘Artificial Islands, Installations and Related Activities by Non-State Actors in Area Beyond National Jurisdiction’.

Senior Research Fellow Youna Lyons attended the 73rd meeting of the Marine Environment Protection Committee of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). The meeting took place from 22 to 26 October 2018. Ms Lyons was head of delegation of the Advisory Committee for the Protection Sea, an NGO with a consultative status at the IMO. In addition to most plenary meetings, she took part in three working groups on marine plastics, underwater noise and biofouling.

CIL researchers presented papers at the conference ‘International Law in Asia: Challenges and Opportunities’ in Beijing. The conference was organised by the Asian Society of International Law and Renmin University of China Law School

Research Fellow Amber Rose Maggio presented a paper entitled ‘Regional Cooperation for Protection of the Marine Environment in Southeast Asia’. The paper focussed on cooperation in the South China Sea and explored current trends in regional cooperation in Southeast Asia, including the challenges faced and future prospects in the region. Dr Maggio highlighted particularities of the region with regard to cooperative efforts, in order to understand the best way to approach the analysis.

Research Associate Millicent McCreath presented a paper entitled ‘UNCLOS Legal Framework for Cooperation in East and Southeast Asia on the Reduction of Marine Plastic Pollution from Land-Based Sources’. In her paper, Ms McCreath sought to clarify the content of the UNCLOS obligations on land-source pollution and regional cooperation, to encourage states to take active measures to prevent marine plastic pollution, and to work together to that end. The paper also addressed the legal implications of failing to meet these obligations, particularly the risk of compulsory dispute settlement procedures under UNCLOS.

Research Fellow Amber Rose Maggio and Postdoctoral Fellow Marija Jovanovic presented papers at the International Law and Universality Conference in Manchester organised by the European Society of International Law.

Dr Maggio’s paper was entitled ‘Marine Environmental Protection, Regional Cooperation and Universality: The Particular View from Southeast Asia’. The paper explored the preference for universality in environmental standard setting with regard to marine environmental protection, how regionalism and regional cooperation may be replacing universalism in the implementation of measures for the protection and preservation of the marine environment, and what the implications are for states in Southeast Asia. The paper discussed the legal framework and possible move away from universality, regional cooperation mechanisms, the particular view from Southeast Asia with a focus on the South China Sea, and future prospects.

Dr Jovanovic presented a paper entitled ‘Europe, Trade Deals and Forced and Child Labour in Developing States: Towards a More Principled Approach’. She explored the extraterritorial reach of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in cases of forced and worst forms of child labour when these practices occur within the supply chains of companies domiciled in European states. Exposing an unprincipled gap in the current ECHR jurisprudence, the paper argued that the absence of any state responsibility pertaining to activities of business enterprises domiciled in their territory, especially in countries with well-known and severe governance gaps, undermines the universal reach of the absolute prohibition of slavery and forced labour and effectively encourages and facilitates such practices outside the European espace juridique. The paper then presented reasons for and ways of framing states’ positive obligations in these circumstances that are consistent with the principles of interpretation of the ECHR and with the growing international recognition of such duties by international organisations and established precedents in some domestic jurisdictions.

CIL researchers Tara Davenport, Millicent McCreath and Christine Sim recently participated in the International Law Association Biennial Conference in Sydney. CIL organised a panel on ‘The Inherent Changeability of the Due Diligence Principle: Challenges for the Development of International Environmental Law’, which was chaired by Professor Rosemary Rayfuse.

Ms Tara Davenport spoke on this panel on ‘The Inherently Changeable Due Diligence Principle and the Protection of the Marine Environment’. Other speakers on this panel were Justice Nicola Pain of the Land and Environment Court of NSW, Dr Aline Jaeckel from Macquarie University and Professor Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger of the University of Waterloo/ University of Cambridge.

Ms Millicent McCreath was a speaker on the panel on ‘The Tide of Change: New Responses to Environmental Challenges in the Pacific Ocean’, organised by the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law. The topic of her presentation was ‘PSIDS Request for an ITLOS Advisory Opinion on the Content of UNCLOS Climate Change Obligations’.

Ms Christine Sim spoke on a panel on ‘Investment Disputes and Challenging Boundary Issues over Land and Sea’. Her topic was ‘Investment Disputes in Areas of Uncertain Sea Boundaries: Ghana/Cote d’Ivoire’.  

Associate Professor Robert Beckman participated in the 2018 APOLIA-KIOST Conference: Area-Based Marine Protection in the Asia-Pacific on 18–19 August 2018 at the State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. The Conference was organised by the Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology (KIOST) and the Asia Pacific Ocean Law Institutions Alliance (APOLIA). Assoc Prof Beckman gave a presentation in the session on ‘Regional Initiatives in the South China Sea’ and Chaired the discussion in the session on ‘State Practice in Southeast Asia’. For copy of his presentation, click here.

Senior Research Fellow Youna Lyons was a lecturer in the 23rd Session of the Rhodes Academy, an annual three-week course on principles of contemporary oceans law and policy. Ms Lyons lectured on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), international law, and the protection and preservation of the marine environment. Her presentation slides are available here.

CIL Research Fellow Zhen Sun participated in ‘ASEAN-China Workshop on Marine Environmental Protection in the South China Sea’ in Phuket, Thailand, on 12–13 July 2018. The workshop brought together government officials and academics from ASEAN member states and China to discuss means to deepen cooperation on the marine environmental protection and marine search and rescue in the South China Sea.

Dr Sun gave a presentation on ‘Legal Framework of Marine Environmental Protection in the South China Sea’. In the presentation, Dr Sun emphasised that states bordering the South China Sea, a semi-enclosed sea as defined under UNCLOS, should cooperate with each other in the implementation of their rights and duties with respect to the protection and preservation of the marine environment. To access the presentation, please click here.