Researchers' Activities

CIL Research Fellow Tara Davenport participated at the 2012 Annual Plenary Meeting of the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC) on “A Sea Change: Securing Submarine Cables in the Modern World”, held in Lisbon, Portugal from 17 – 19 April 2012. She presented on “The Criminalization of Damage to Submarine Cables: Problems and Prospects”. For a copy of the PowerPoint Presentation, please click here.

CIL Director Robert Beckman presented a paper on “Cooperation to Combat ‘Piracy’ in Southeast Asia” at an international seminar at Padjadjaran University in Bandung, Indonesia on 5 April 2012. The Seminar was organized by the Indonesian Centre for the Law of the Sea (ICLOS) at Padjadjaran University, the Netherlands Institute for the Law of the Sea (NILOS) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia. The seminar was organized in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The other speakers were Dr Hasjim Djalal and Prof Etty Agoes of Indonesia and Prof A.H.A. Soons of NILOS and Martin Sebastian of the Maritime Institute of Malaysia (MIMA). For a copy of the paper, click here. For a copy of the powerpoint presentation, click here.

CIL Director Robert Beckman and CIL Research Fellow Tara Davenport participated in a South China Sea Workshop on 2 April 2012 at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore. The workshop brought together representatives from think tanks in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam.

CIL Director Robert Beckman and CIL Senior Research Fellow Youna Lyons participated in a Workshop in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam from 28-30 March 2012. The Workshop on Maritime Security in Southeast Asia: Maritime Safety and the Marine Environment was co-organized by the Pacific Forum, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Honolulu, and the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam. Prof Beckman gave a presentation in Session 1 on Legal Regimes and Marine Environmental Protection and Safety (download in PDF). Youna Lyons gave a presentation in Session 4 on Energy Extraction and Transportation (download in PDF).

CIL Director Robert Beckman was invited to give a live studio interview for Channel News Asia’s newly launched “Think Tank” Segment on 12 March 2012. Prof Beckman shared his insights on the South China Sea disputes and his views on the prospects for resolution. The segment was aired live at 7:30 on 12 March 2012.

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.