Researchers' Activities

Government officials from Australia, Brunei, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam participated in the discussion, which was moderated by N. Jansen Calamita, Head, Investment Law & Policy, CIL. David Gaukrodger, Senior Legal Adviser, OECD Investment Division, and Professor Lauge Poulsen, Chair, OECD Project on Climate Change and Investment, took part in the discussion, which allowed participants to improve their understanding of regional interests, priorities and policies for the climate and investment. 

Railla Puno delivered a presentation based on working paper “Rights-based Approaches for Carbon Dioxide Removal: Asia in Focus” at the 7^th edition of the Gonzaga in Florence Human Rights Conference with this year’s theme of Climate Change and Human Rights. The Conference was held in Florence, Italy from 24-25 May 2023 and was hosted by the University of Gonzaga School of Law.

The  meeting discussed, among others, the status and content of the law of countermeasures as applied in cyberspace.

The event was a side-line event of the 8^th International Maritime Security Conference 2023, jointly organised by S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) and the Australia National Centre for Ocean Resources & Security (ANCORS) on 5 May 2023 in Singapore.

5 May 2023: CIL Director Dr Nilüfer Oral was Invited to Speak at the ASIL ICTIG Event on the Topic: “The Role of International Courts and Tribunals Amidst the Conflict in Ukraine: Avenues for Justice and Peace?”

Danielle Yeow, Lead Climate Law and Policy, attended a meeting of the UNFCCC RINGO Oceans Interest Group Quarterly Meeting on 4 May 2023 to discuss developments relating to climate change and oceans and preparations for the 58^th meeting of the Subsidiary Bodies to the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement.

Special Thanks

Amiel Valdez joined the 209 lawyers from 59 countries who served as judges in the recently concluded International Rounds of the 2023 Philip C Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, which was held in person in Washington, D.C., United States of America.

N. Jansen Calamita – After the Treaty is Signed: Do States Internalise Investment Treaty Commitments in Their Decision Making?

27 March 2023: CIL Director Dr Nilüfer Oral was Invited to Speak at the 2023 Regional Conference on Preserving Statehood and Protecting Persons: Legal Options and Institutional Responses to the Impacts of Sea-Level Rise, in the context of International Law organized by the Pacific Islands Forum which was held in Fiji from 27-30 March 2023.

The Climate Change Law and Policy team, in collaboration with Durham University’s Centre for Sustainable Development Law and Policy and the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative, made a joint submission to the Global Stocktake (GST) 2023 process under the Paris Agreement. This GST is a process for taking stock of the implementation of the Paris Agreement with the aim of assessing the world’s collective progress towards achieving the purpose of the Paris Agreement and its long-term goals. The first stocktake got underway at the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26) and will conclude at COP28 in 2023.

The details of the presentation are available at here. 

24 March 2023:  CIL Director Dr Nilüfer Oral was Invited to Speak at the III World Meeting for Societies of International Law Organized by the Peruvian Society of International Law

It is available in multiple platforms here LinkedIn | Youtube | Facebook | Spotify

In her presentation “SHARM EL-SHEIKH TO DUBAI – HOW GOES “THE FIGHT OF OUR LIVES”?”, Danielle shared her views on the key outcomes from COP27 and the developments since Sharm El-Sheikh .  She discussed their implications for governments, industry and civil society and shared her assessment of the current state of affairs in the “fight of our lives” and the road ahead to Dubai.

13 March 2023: CIL Director Dr Nilüfer Oral was Invited to Speak at the GNLU-GMU Academy on Climate Change, Marine Biodiversity and Sustainable Shipping 2023

7 March 2023: CIL Director Dr Nilüfer Oral was Invited to Speak at the Global Governance / Multilateralism Webinar Organized by ADI-ILA

Read the article here https://time.com/6258960/covid-19-origins-lab-leak-china-politics/

This is the third time that Amiel was invited to judge the Philippine qualifying rounds. Twelve (12) law schools participated in this year’s competition. The top three (3) winning teams – University of the Philippines (national champion), University of San Carlos (1st runner-up), and Ateneo de Manila University (2nd runner-up) will compete in the international rounds in Washington, DC, USA, this coming April 2023.

One necessary step to limit global warming is to phase out fossil fuel production, which can deprive the value of foreign investments and amount to breaches of investment treaties.

The lecture was part of the course ‘Sustainable Ocean Law and Governance,’ taught by Associate Professor Nengye Liu.

1 February 2023: CIL Director Dr Nilüfer Oral was Invited to Speak at the Anthropocene Webinar Organized by ADI-ILA

The Stetson Moot, organised by the Institute of Biodiversity Law and Policy of Stetson University, is the world’s leading competition on global environmental law issues such as conservation and sustainability. This is the Stetson’s 27th year of hosting this competition. https://www.stetson.edu/law/international/iemcc/

The mandate of Working Group III is to develop reforms to the existing regime of investor-state dispute settlement. CIL has been an official observer to Working Group III since 2017, when the Working Group’s mandate began.

The purpose of this conference is to create a platform for scholars of law in Asia, particularly South and South-East Asia to showcase their research, engage with ideas and build professional networks. We believe that this will create opportunities for younger academics in Asia to further build their body of research by facilitating dialogue and research collaborations.

https://jgu.edu.in/international-conference-on-law-business-society/

They participated remotely in this three-day hybrid meeting which was held in Geneva, Switzerland from 19 to 21 December 2022.

The Global Ocean Regime Conference is an annual international conference to establish a network with experts in marine policy and the maritime laws including United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea around the world and to share knowledge and discuss about international trend on maritime territories, areas such as the continental shelf, High seas and so on.

The title of the presentation is “Is LOSC ready for new technology? Carbon Capture and Storage in the Asia-Pacific Region”. She explored the extent to which obligations to protect the marine environment under LOSC provide effective regulations for managing the risks posed by CCS, focusing on the Asia-Pacific Region.

The recording of the Dialogue is available at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGDrs4tWXd0.  Pls contact Danielle Yeow d.yeow@nus.edu.sg if interested in participating in future dialogue session.

Youna Lyons from CIL Ocean Law and Policy Programme was invited to speak to the Plastics Research Network (PlaReNet) Conference, which was held 6-7 December 2022 in a hybrid format; it was co-presented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) of the Philippines, and Embassy of Japan in Manila.

In this Episode, Dr Miguel Dorotan (Miriam College, Philippines) spoke with Amiel Valdez (NUS Centre for International Law), and Paolo Valenzuela (NUS Asia Research Institute) on how we should address the Philippine environmental security particularly in terms of mitigating the risks from climate change and rising sea levels. The speakers reflected on the standard of ‘environmental security’, the major outcomes of the recently concluded climate conference (COP 27) in Egypt, and the importance of diplomacy in tackling all these issues.

The International Organizations Partnership is a network of international organizations working towards the development of better international rule-making. Ayelet Berman spoke about how the international system could be reformed to respond faster and with greater agility to future pandemics.

Dr Dawoon Jung was invited to present on Marine Plastic Pollution at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) Alumni Anniversary Event via Zoom.

Danielle discussed the key outcomes at COP27 and shared her reflections on the implications of these developments. Recording accessible at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhrDBw5M8S8&list=PLX-_OXNM8JVl67CUuPX-TI6RArxqqYT9q

For his PowerPoint presentation, click Beckman Powerpoint Session 1 ARF Workshop 30 Nov.

30 November 2022: CIL Director Dr Nilüfer Oral was Invited by ILA Hellenic Branch to Speak at the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea @40

One of the key themes was marine pollution and addressing the problems of plastics and chemicals in the ocean. https://events.economist.com/world-ocean-summit-asia-pacific/downloadagenda/

24 November 2022: CIL Director Dr Nilüfer Oral was Invited to Speak at the International Order and Justice Lecture Series Organized by the Ghent University.

The dialogue brought together a select group of experts to discuss ways for states to implement their responsibilities in relation to nuclear weapons and/or radioactive materials in the maritime domain in the name of confidence building and risk reduction. The dialogue was guided by the BASIC-ICCS Nuclear Responsibilities Framework.

The panel features CIL Director Dr Nilufer Oral, Malcolm Dalesa (Vanuatu’s Climate Attache in New York),  Prof Payam Akhavan (Legal Counsel to COSIS) and Assoc Prof Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh (Lead Counsel to Vanuatu on the ICJ initiative).  The dialogue was moderated by CIL’s Danielle Yeow.

Prof Beckman made a presentation in Session 6 on Rules of the Road for Non-Traditional and Cross-Cutting Domains. His presentation was on “Aviation Safety in the South China Sea”. Prof Beckman has participated in 13 of the 14 annual conferences organized by the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam on the South China Sea. For a copy of Prof Beckman’s PowerPoint presentation, click: Beckman PowerPoint Da Nang Nov 2022 final.

In Session 5 Voices of the Next Generation, Dr Dawoon Jung presented on “Offshore Renewable Energy Operations and the Protection of the Marine Environment”. Her presentation explored the substantive regulation of environmental challenges caused by offshore renewable energy operations within the UNCLOS legal framework.

15-17 November 2022: CIL Director Dr Nilüfer Oral was Invited to Speak at the Seventh International Conference on the Law of the Sea Hosted by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea (MOFA)

Danielle Yeow presented on (a) the international climate change legal framework under the UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement and (b) Singapore’s progress under the UNFCCC including her national circumstances and impact of climate change in Singapore’s context.

Danielle Yeow discussed the “who, what and why” of collaboration and spoke on CIL’s collaborative capacity building initiatives with the UNFCC Secretariat and Durham University as well as upcoming collaborative research and other capacity building initiatives.

This global international symposium facilitated meaningful dialogue between COP delegates, observers and stakeholders, also keen students, with an interest in national and international law and governance related to climate change, including government representatives and leaders, leading international and domestic legal practitioners, and renowned legal experts.  https://www.climatelawgovernance.org/clgi-cop27/

10 November 2022: CIL Director Dr Nilüfer Oral was Invited to Speak at the International Symposium on ” Ocean Governance in the New Era: Current Challenges and the Law of the Sea” Organized by Global Governance Institution

They made a presentation titled Development of a Dynamic and Searchable Catalogue of Experts and Expertise in Research on Marine Plastic Pollution in ASEAN +3, which was jointly prepared by them and Cheng Ling Lim.

7-19 Nov 2022: Danielle Yeow attended the COP27 UN Climate Change meetings, Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt as a virtual delegate.

At a panel on policy aspects of One Health, Ayelet Berman presented her thoughts on the role of voluntary licensing and technology transfer contracts in advancing equitable access to vaccines in developing countries.