Researchers' Activities

CIL Director Robert Beckman made a presentation on “Military Activities in the EEZ: Legal Issues” (download in PDF) at an international conference on “Security Environment of the Seas in East Asia: From the East and South China Seas – Power Shift and Response”. The conference was jointly organized by the Maritime Security Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) and the Ocean Policy Research Foundation (OPRF) of Japan. It was held at the Marina Mandarin Hotel from 28-29 February 2012. The other two speakers in the panel on EEZ activities were Dr. Moritaka Hayashi, Professor Emeritus, Waseda University, and Dr. Jin Yongming, Associate Professor, Director of Center for Oceans Law, Law Institute, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

The Asian Society of International Law held its 3rd NUS-AsianSIL Young Scholars Workshop 2012 – Asian Approaches to International Law on 23-24 February 2012 at NUS, Bukit Timah Campus. CIL Research Fellow Tara Davenport presented her paper “Southeast Asian Approaches to Maritime Delimitation.” CIL Director Robert Beckman and Research Fellow Youna Lyons chaired the panels on Oceans Law and the Environment respectively. Research Fellow and Executive Director of the CIL ASEAN ITL Project Dr Tan Hsien-Li, CIL  co-chaired the Workshop, along with Dean of the Faculty of Law, Simon Chesterman. More information on the Young Scholars Workshop can be found here.

CIL Director Robert Beckman made a presentation to government officials in Brunei Darussalam on 26 January 2012 at the Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Institute for Defence and Strategic Studies (SHHBIDSS). Prof Beckman’s presentation was on “UNCLOS Dispute Settlement Mechanisms and the South China Sea”. His presentation was followed by a question and answer session. Prof Beckman was invited by SHHBIDSS as a Distinguished Speaker in its Southeast Asia Security Roundtable Series IV. The SHHBIDSS was established in 2007 and is within the Ministry of Defence.

A/P Michael Ewing-Chow, Head of CIL’s Trade and Investment Law & Policy Programme, and five CIL Research Associates, Mr. Leonardo Bernard, Ms. Tara Maria Davenport, Ms. Liu Gehuan, Ms. Mayla Fermina Alonzo Ibanez, and Ms. Ranyta Yusran presented their papers on various fields of law at the 8th Asian Law Institute’s (ASLI) Conference held in Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan. For more information and to download their papers, click here.

CIL Director Robert Beckman participated at a conference organized by the ASEAN Studies Centre (ASC) of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) on “Entering Uncharted Waters?: ASEAN and the South China Sea Dispute”. The main objective of the one-day conference was to discuss on how ASEAN, as an organization, should be handling the South China Sea dispute and through what channels and mechanisms. Prof Beckman presented his paper “The South China Sea Dispute: An International Lawyer’s View”  (download in PDF format) which was prepared for the Conference. For PDF version of his presentation, click here.

The Maritime Institute of Malaysia (MIMA) organized a Conference on the South China Sea: Recent Developments and Implications Towards Peaceful Dispute Resolution on 12 to 13 December 2011 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. CIL Director Robert Beckman presented his paper on “The UNCLOS Dispute Settlement Mechanisms and the South China Sea Disputes” in Session 3 on “The Way Forward: Options and Their Implications.” To download his paper in PDF format, click here. To download his PowerPoint presentation in PDF format, click here.

The US National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR) and Indonesia’s Habibie Centre organized a Conference on Marine Energy Resources in Asia to launch NBR’s Research Project on Marine Energy Resources in Asia. CIL Research Associate Tara Davenport presented her paper on “Joint Development in Asia: Some Valuable Lessons Learned.” For a copy of her PowerPoint Presentation in PDF format, click here.

The Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS) of the Faculty of Law, University of Wollongong, Australia hosted the sixth Law of the Sea Institute (LOSI) Conference “The Limits of Maritime Jurisdiction” on 28 November to 2 December 2011 in Wollongong, Australia. The LOSI Conference was sponsored by LOSI, which is based at the School of Law, University of California, Berkeley, USA, and the Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute (KORDI), South Korea. CIL Director Robert Beckman gave a presentation on “Maritime Security and Jurisdiction over Pirates and Maritime Terrorists.” CIL Research Associate Tara Davenport was among five panelists who received the 2011 LOSI Research Competition Award for Early Career Researchers and presented on “The Negotiation of Maritime Boundaries in the East China Sea: Legal and Practical Issues.” CIL Research Associate Leo Bernard also attended the Conference. To download Director Beckman’s PowerPoint Presentation in PDF format, click here. To download Tara Davenport’s PowerPoint Presentation in PDF format, click here.

Adjunct Senior Research Fellow Youna Lyons has been invited by the Republic of Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment, on 23 November 2011, to make a presentation on the use of dispersants in response to oil spills under international law, at the Seminar on Registration Arrangements of Dispersant For Oil Spill Response at Sea organized in Bali. To download a copy of the presentation in PDF format, click here.

CIL Director Robert Beckman participated in the International Conference on ‘Cooperation for the Safety of Navigation in East Asia: Legal Arrangements and Political Implications’ in Haikou, China. The Conference was organized by the National Institute for South China Sea Studies. Professor Beckman was one of the Panellists on the panel focusing on Navigation in the South China Sea, where he talked about the use of Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA) in the South China Sea. For a PDF version of the draft paper that he presented, click here.