Researchers' Activities

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’.  

Research Fellow Dr Dafina Atanasova and Research Associate and Practice Fellow Elsa Sardinha participated in SIEL Biennial Conference 2018 International Economic Law in Unsettling Times, American University Washington College of Law, Washington DC, 12–14 July 2018.

Dr Atanasova presented her paper ‘Applicable Law Provisions in Investment Treaties: An Empirical Take,’ as part of a panel dedicated to the general and theoretical aspects of international investment law.

Ms Sardinha presented her paper ‘Requiem for A Deal, or the End of American Influence in the Investment Chapters of Asia-Relevant FTAs?’, co-authored with NUS Assistant Professor Vincent-Joël Proulx, as part of a trade and investment panel dedicated to China and Asia. This paper had won the Best Paper Award at the Asian Society of International Law Japan Chapter’s Annual Global Conference in Tokyo on 1 July 2018.

CIL Researchers Ms Emily Choo and Mr Eugenio Gomez-Chico were invited to judge the inaugural Foreign Direct Investment International Arbitration Moot (FDI Moot)—Vietnam National Round (7–8 July 2018). The moot was hosted by the Ho Chi Minh University of Law and organised by the Vietnam Society of International Law. The national round is part of the FDI Moot organised by the Center for International Legal Studies, which aims to help future lawyers attain a practical understanding of investment law issues, and offers a unique forum for academics and practitioners from around to world to discuss developments and assess emerging talents. The winning teams were from the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh University of Law.

CIL Director Lucy Reed spoke at the ‘Forum on the Belt and Road Legal Cooperation: Rules and Coordination’ in Beijing on 2–3 July 2018. The conference was co-hosted at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China and the China Law Society, with the Chinese Foreign Minister HE Wang Yi giving the keynote speech. The legal focus—the so-called ‘soft connectivity’ of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)—was underscored by the identity of the co-sponsors: Chinese Society of International Law, China University of Political Science and Law, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing Law Society, and Department of Justice of the Government of Hong Kong SAR.

Professor Reed spoke on arbitration and mediation of investor-state disputes, on the panel ‘The BRI and International Dispute Settlement’. The other main panels addressed ‘The BRI and International Rule of Law’, ‘Rules, Treaties and Laws Supporting the BRI’, and ‘BRI Legal Exchange and Cooperation’. The conference had over 350 invited participants from Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, the Caribbean and South America.

Research Assistant JR Robert Real presented his paper ‘For the Common Good—The Philippine Supreme Court’s Divergent Approach to Human Dignity’ at the Human Dignity in Asia: Dialogue between Law and Culture Conference. Held from 2 to 3 July 2018 in Taipei, the conference was organised by the Academia Sinica Institutum Iurisprudentiae.

Mr Real’s paper explores the Philippine Supreme Court’s approach to interpreting the concept of human dignity, which seems to vary depending on whether parties invoke individual rights or collective rights.

Research Assistant JR Robert Real presented his paper ‘Judicial Transplantation as a Backdoor to Environmental Normative Integration in ASEAN’ at the 2018 ICON-S Annual Conference on Identity, Security, Democracy: Challenges for Public Law. Held from 25 to 27 June 2018 in Hong Kong, the conference was organised by the International Society of Public Law and the University of Hong Kong.

Mr Real’s paper explored the role of Southeast Asian judiciaries in developing regional environmental norms amid the general sensitivity of the region to international law intruding on domestic sovereignty.

CIL successfully organised its inaugural Teaching and Researching International Law in Asia (TRILA) conference on 21–22 June 2018 at the NUS Faculty of Law. Bringing together 144 participants from 34 countries, the TRILA conference provided a platform for junior and senior researchers and faculty members to meet and collaborate on teaching and researching international law in Asia.

The TRILA Conference opened with a rousing keynote address by Judge Raul C Pangalangan of the International Criminal Court, exploring in-depth the role of international law in Asia. Its first day, focussed on teaching, investigated the methods of imparting knowledge and inspiring passion in Asian students of international law, the challenges faced by Asian international law lecturers, and the areas of international law most pertinent to international practice. The second day, focussed on research, involved expositions on the role of history, theory and identity in Asian international law scholarship, the production of quality research in international law, and the obstacles to research faced by Asian scholars. The event closed with a thought-provoking and hopeful prospectus on international law teaching and research in Asia.

CIL’s TRILA conference reflects the commitment of NUS Faculty of Law in promoting international law scholarship in Asia, continuing the work of the 1964 Round Table on the Teaching of International Law and Relations, and the TRILA Conference of 2001. Very fittingly, Professor Tommy Koh (Chairman of CIL’s Governing Board) and Professor S Jayakumar (Chairman of CIL’s International Advisory Panel), both pioneers in this project, were present at the opening of the conference. The conference was preceded by a one-day Junior Faculty Workshop, which gave young scholars the valuable opportunity to have their work critiqued by a panel of senior faculty, consisting of leading voices in international law.

CIL Director Professor Lucy Reed spoke at the international conference on ‘The Rise of International Commercial Courts’ at Qatar University on 13 May 2018. Professor Reed spoke about the Singapore International Commercial Court on a panel discussing comparative features of international commercial courts, including the Qatar International Court and Dispute Resolution Centre. The keynote speaker for the conference was Justice Ramesh Kannan of the Singapore High Court.

CIL Director Professor Lucy Reed spoke on the opening plenary panel of the bi-annual Congress of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA) in Sydney, Australia. The panel theme was ‘Law-Making in International Arbitration: What Legitimacy Challenges Lie Ahead?’, and Professor Reed spoke on arbitration tribunals as lawmakers. Professor Stephan Schill of the University of Amsterdam moderated the panel, and the other panellists were Singapore Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, ICC Court of Arbitration President Alexis Moure, and Professor Thomas Schultz of Kings College London. All the papers will be published in the official ICCA Congress Series (Wolters Kluwer).

Professor Reed also spoke at the follow-on AMINZ-ICCA International Arbitration Day in Queenstown, New Zealand, where the theme was ‘Making Arbitration Work in a Changing World: A Pacific View’. She was the commentator on Daniel Kaldermis’s keynote lecture entitled ‘International Arbitration in a Brave New World’.

Research Associate Ms Melissa Loja presented her research paper at the New Voices Panel at the 112th Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law in Washington DC. Ms Loja’s paper was about international agreements between non-state actors. Her paper discussed international agreements that national petroleum corporations such as Petronas, PetroVietnam, PetroleumBrunei and China National Offshore Oil Corporations enter into to manage disputes over petroleum resources that are shared by states across maritime zones and boundaries.

Professor Laurence Helfer, Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of International Law, remarked that her paper makes a concrete contribution to international law, because it presents primary data that have not been made known before, and it enables a granular examination of actual practices in international law.