Researchers' Activities

Postdoctoral Fellow Neha Mishra presented her paper titled ‘International Trade Law and Data Ethics: Possibilities and Challenges’ at the 6th Biennial Asian Economic Law Network Conference. The conference was held in Taipei on 25–27 October and was organised by National Tsing-Hua University; Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan; Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, National Tsing Hua University; and The Erasmus+ Program of the European Union.

Ms Mishra argued that the inherent tension between promoting data/digital innovation and ensuring ethical data management is likely to surface in international trade law, and is particularly prominent when data restrictive measures are examined under exceptions in international trade agreements. This tension appears irresolvable due to the technological uncertainty surrounding the future evolution and uses of AI and Big Data and the absence of international norms on data governance. Although international trade law cannot directly resolve these tensions, trade policymakers should remain open and responsive to relevant policy dialogues on data governance in various governmental and multistakeholder fora. Ms Mishra argued that by doing so, international trade law can play a more proactive and transformative role in dealing with ethical issues in data governance—addressing not only infrastructure-related issues (eg, access to telecommunications networks) but also regulatory concerns such as facilitating international cooperation on data policies, supporting internationally recognised internet standards, promoting fair competition and transparency in domestic data policies, and ensuring digital inclusion of developing countries. Trade rules should also not require countries to compromise on their data policies necessary for ethical reasons so as to participate in global digital markets. Although these outcomes appear ambitious, the ongoing dialogues at WTO on electronic commerce provide an opportunity to generate political goodwill and enhance cooperation among countries to achieve these results.

Senior research fellows Youna Lyons and Vu Hai Dang presented at the 4th Fisheries Management and Management Environmental Protection Workshop organised by the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue and the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute in Manila, Philippines, on 24 October 2019. The meeting discussed the establishment of a network of marine protected areas in the SCS.

At the workshop, Ms Lyons presented a mapping exercise of all marine protected areas and ecologically sensitive areas that have been established by coastal countries in the SCS, based on applicable international instruments and publicly available data from WDPA. Dr Dang presented options to support the development of a network of marine protected areas in the South China Sea.

CIL Researcher Eugenio Gomez-Chico participated in the Conference ‘REDIAL: Repensar la Enseñanza del Derecho Internacional en América Latina’ (Rethinking international legal education in Latin America), which took place in Bogota, Colombia on 23–24 October. He presented CIL’s TRILA programme (Teaching and Researching International Law in Asia), sharing its activities, goals and achievements.

REDIAL, like TRILA, is a project aimed to improve and strengthen the scholarship and community of international law scholars regionally, introducing Latin American perspectives and materials into the curriculum, and critically analysing the traditional Euro-centric contents and history of the discipline. In this second conference, scholars from different universities in the region discussed their challenges in teaching and researching on international law, and publishing in different languages.

Senior Research Fellow Denise Cheong participated in a faculty professional development course on nuclear security education held at the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore. This course was jointly organised by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. The aim of the week-long course was to build capacity in the design of nuclear security education programmes, including curriculum development, and to support human resource development in Asia. Participants were predominantly academics from a variety of disciplines including natural and applied sciences, social sciences and humanities, representing leading universities from countries within Southeast Asia as well as China, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Robert Beckman participated in the UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) Legal Expert Meeting on the Review of the Maritime Crime Manual for Criminal Justice Practitioners. The meeting was held in Mauritius on 16–18 October 2019. Assoc Prof Beckman led a discussion on the protection of submarine cables and participated in the discussions on stateless vessels, shiprider agreements and transnational maritime environmental crime.

Senior Research Fellow Denise Cheong and Research Associate Nivedita S participated in the Fourth International Workshop on the Indemnification of Damage in the Event of a Nuclear Accident on 8–10 October 2019, held in Lisbon, Portugal. Organised by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (OECD/NEA), the Institute Superior Técnico (IST), and the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, the workshop brought together more than 140 participants from 29 countries, including representatives from government agencies, operators, suppliers, nuclear insurance pools and mutuals, law firms and academia.

The workshop facilitated in-depth, interdisciplinary discussions on the scope of ‘nuclear damage’ as defined in the international nuclear third party liability instruments as well as the mechanics of the transboundary claims-handling process, which the conventions do not address. A key outcome of the workshop was the recognition that a common understanding of these issues is needed to effectively and efficiently operationalise the international nuclear conventions in the event of a transboundary nuclear accident. Important links between emergency preparedness and response and nuclear liability were also drawn.

On 7 October 2019 Robert Beckman participated in the Arctic Frontiers symposium organised by Arctic Frontiers in collaboration with the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Singapore, the National University of Singapore and Innovation Norway.

In a panel discussion on Resources of the North, Prof Beckman argued that since the Arctic is an ocean, the right to explore and exploit the natural resources in the Arctic Ocean is governed by the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The CIL Ocean Law and Policy Programme organised an informal roundtable discussion on the ‘Governance of and Research on Pollution from Marine Plastic in Southeast Asia’ on 25 September 2019 in Jakarta, Indonesia. Participants to the roundtable include representatives from Indonesia’s relevant government agencies, research institutions and academia from Indonesia, and representatives from permanent missions of ASEAN countries to ASEAN. CIL was represented by Youna Lyons, Dita Liliansa, Vanessa Lam and Vu Hai Dang. Participants shared their research on pollution from marine plastic. For more information on the event, click here.

On 23–25 September 2019 four researchers from the CIL Ocean Law and Policy Programme—Youna Lyons, Dita Liliansa, Vanessa Lam, and Vu Hai Dang—visited several divisions of the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta. The aims of the visits were to share CIL’s research on the protection of the marine environment and, if possible, involve the Secretariat in a manuscript under development.

Inputs from the Secretariat helped to ensure CIL’s accurate interpretation of ASEAN instruments and processes on the protection and management of the marine environment.

On 19–20 September 2019, the CIL hosted representatives of ten Asia-Pacific economies in Singapore for a workshop on the management of the reform of investment treaty portfolios. The workshop was convened by Research Associate Professor (CIL) N Jansen Calamita (Head, Investment Law and Policy) and attended by CIL researchers Dr Romesh Weeramantry (Head, International Dispute Resolution) and Dr Charalampos Giannakopoulos (Post-doctoral Fellow).

Participants discussed a broad range of issues, including the challenges of successfully updating and managing a country’s investment treaty portfolio, approaches to treaty drafting, options for reform of the ISDS regime, managing the coexistence of ‘reformed’ and ‘unreformed’ treaties in state treaty portfolios, and developing and implementing effective procedures for dispute avoidance and prevention.

The workshop is part of CIL’s broader research focus on international investment law and policy and international dispute resolution.

Research Fellow Arron N Honniball gave a presentation on the progress of and challenges to ASEAN’s regional cooperation in maritime safety and security at the Third ASEAN-India Workshop on Blue Economy, held in Bangkok on 12 September 2019. In his presentation, Dr Honniball focussed on the jurisdictional rights and responsibilities of states concerning maritime safety and security as well as the opportunities and necessity of deeper cooperation to help maintain the blue economy.

At the ReCAAP Capacity-Building Executive Programme held in Singapore from 8 to 13 September, Robert Beckman gave a presentation on the relevance of UN terrorism conventions to attacks on ships in the region.

The programme was jointly organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, together with the ReCAAP Information Sharing Centre. 

Associate Director Sharon Seah and Research Associate Amiel Ian Valdez participated in the Asia-Pacific Climate Week (APCW) from 2nd to 6th September in Bangkok. The APCW was organised by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in partnership with global and regional organisations. The meeting’s goals are to discuss recommendations to boost regional climate action in the lead-up to the United Nations Secretary-General’s Climate Action Summit scheduled for 23 September 2019, and to give impetus to the UNFCCC Conference of Parties (COP) 25 negotiations in Santiago, Chile, in December 2019.

At the APCW, regional stakeholders discussed climate emergency, key vulnerabilities and challenges, and increasing ambition in achieving the Paris Agreement’s goal. They also shared best practices on implementing national climate plans. CIL staff participated in small group workshops and discussions on climate resilience and adaptation, nature-based solutions, transparency arrangements, climate finance, and local actions.

Robert Beckman participated in the UNESCAP Roundtable on 22 August 2019 at the MPA Academy in Singapore, giving a presentation on ‘Tsunami Monitoring from Ships, Offshore Structures and Submarine Cables: Legal And Jurisdictional Issues’.

The Roundtable was organised by UNESCAP, the MPA, the IMO, the SSA and the Global Compact Network Singapore in collaboration with 14 other organisations. The title of Roundtable was Maritime Sector Strategies to Augment Tsunami Monitoring with Economic, Safety and Environmental Benefits. The Roundtable discussed the potential public sector–private sector partnerships to augment tsunami-warning systems by placing warning devices on offshore platforms, ships and submarine cables.

CIL researchers participated in the Asian Society of International Law conference in Manila on 21–23 August 2019.

At the Junior Scholars’ Conference, Dita Liliansa presented on ‘Protection of Sea Turtles in the Seas of Southeast Asia: An ASEAN Way?’, offering an ongoing investigation on the relationship between ASEAN law, policy and guidelines, and the development of international instruments in the context of the protection of sea turtles in Southeast Asia. Dr Arron Honniball presented on ‘The Role of Nationality Jurisdiction in Combating IUU Fishing: Recent Developments for the Asian Region’, addressing the evolution of the state of nationality in international fisheries law.

The panel on ASEAN Integration and International Law was filled by the CIL’s ASEAN team and chaired by Professor Damian Chalmers, Co-Director (Research) of CIL’s ASEAN Law and Policy Programme. The panellists presented the papers below.

• Dr Melissa Loja: ‘Regionalisation of Venture Capital Investments and the Compatibility of Regulatory Regimes in Southeast Asia: A Case Study of Fintech regulations in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines’
• Dr Heejin Kim: ‘The Laws and Politics of Data localization in Southeast Asia—Competing Regulatory Goals and Diverging Legal Development
• Loo Jing Xi Gloria: ‘Institutional Design and Models of Asian Capitalism’
• Dr Marija Jovanovic: ‘Trade-Labour Linkage: ‘From Social Clause Deniers to Trump as the Champion of Labour Rights in Free Trade Agreements and Back’

In addition, Professor Antony Anghie, Head of CIL’s Teaching and Researching International Law in Asia, convened a popular workshop on teaching and researching in international law. He also spoke on a book panel by the Oxford University Press and a forum on ‘Junior Scholars’ Guide to the Nuts and Bolts of How to Make It Past Rejection Slips’.

Research Associate Eugenio Gomez-Chico participated in the Critical Approaches to International Law Symposium, organised by Griffith College in Dublin from 1 to 4 August.

In his paper ‘Human Rights Courts of the Global South as creators of International Law’, Mr Gomez-Chico explored how the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights approach international law: neither embracing it completely nor fully rejecting it, but rather adapting to international legal principles for their purposes, thus ‘indigenising the universal’.

Research Fellow Arron N Honniball presented a paper at the conference on Governing Science at Sea: The Legal Framework for Marine Scientific Research, held in Busan, South Korea. The conference was organised by the Korea Institute of Science and Technology and the Law of the Sea Institute, UC Berkeley.

Dr Honniball presented his paper titled ‘Rights and Responsibilities for Marine Scientific Research by Private Entities on the High Seas’ in the first panel, which was tasked to explore the context for marine scientific research. The presentation was based on a paper co-authored by Dr Honniball and Associate Professor Robert Beckman.

Research Fellow Amber Rose Maggio participated in the International Conference on Regulatory Governance with the theme ‘Unpacking the Complexity of Regulatory Governance in a Globalising World’ at the Chinese University of Hong Kong on 4–6 July 2019. She presented her paper entitled ‘Climate Change Regulation, Shipping and the WTO: Conflicting Obligations?’ in a panel on challenges relating to transnational environmental regulation.  

At the 24th session of the Rhodes Academy of Oceans Law and Policy, Associate Professor Robert Beckman and Captain Ashley Roach (CIL Visiting Senior Principal Research Fellow) were lecturers, and Research Associate Dita Liliansa was a participant. 

Attended by 52 participants from different countries, the Rhodes Academy addressed the foundations and various topics of the law of the sea. The Rhodes Academy is a cooperative undertaking sponsored by the Center for Oceans Law and Policy (COLP) at the University of Virginia School of Law, CIL at the National University of Singapore, and other institutions.

On 17 and 18 June 2019, CIL Researchers Youna Lyons and Vanessa Lam participated in the Working Group on Marine Litter of the Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA) as observers and contributing experts. Ms Lyons also gave a presentation outlining the scope and findings of NUS research on the ‘Status of Research on Marine Plastics in Southeast Asia: Who Does What?’

Research Fellows Amber Rose Maggio and Dafina Atanasova participated in the 16th ASLI (Asian Law Institute) conference on ‘The Rule of Law and the Role of Law in Asia’. Dr Maggio gave a presentation on ‘Regional Cooperation for the Protection of the Marine Environment in Southeast Asia: Can Other Regions Provide Inspiration?’ She presented CIL’s work on this topic and some ideas about best practices and shared experiences.

Dr Atanasova presented her paper titled ‘Investment Treaties Viewed from Inside the Lion City’. The paper is part of the broader research project on ‘Investment Treaties and National Governance’ (headed by CIL Research Associate Professor Jansen Calamita), studying the extent to which the administrations of Asian states take investment treaties into account in their decision-making processes. Based on a series of interviews with government officials in Singapore and documentary research, the paper opens the ‘black box’ of the Lion City and looks at the impact of investment treaties on its governance. A unitary compact state, Singapore is considered to work as a well-oiled machine and provides a very fruitful terrain for testing some of the core tenets of arguments on investment treaties’ impacts on governance.

For the second consecutive year, CIL was represented in the pool of arbitrators of the Vietnam National Rounds of the FDI International Moot. Research Associate Eugenio Gomez-Chico and Research Consultant Emily Choo sat as arbitrators for various rounds, including the quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final match of the event. This year, team Rigaux from Hanoi Law University won against 14 other teams, advancing to the regional rounds in Seoul, South Korea.

In addition to participating as arbitrators, Ms Choo delivered a lecture on ‘The Impact of Amicus Curiae Interventions in Investor-State Disputes’, and Mr Gomez-Chico spoke on ‘How to Prepare and Win an FDI Moot Competition’ in the workshop.

As part of the outreach efforts of the CIL’s TRILA (Teaching and Researching International Law in Asia) programme led by Professor Tony Anghie, Research Associate Eugenio Gomez-Chico met scholars in Hanoi to discuss possibilities of collaboration: Dr Toan Thang Nguyen, Head of the Comparative Law Department at Hanoi Law University; Dr Nguyen Thi Hong Yen, Head of the Public International Law Division at Hanoi Law University; Dr Hai Yen Trinh, Vice Dean of International Law at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam; and Mr Nguyen Huu Phu, Head of International Law and Treaties at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam, and representative of the Vietnam Society of International Law.

The attendees discussed the importance of teaching and researching international law in their respective universities, the challenges faced by scholars in Vietnam, and their materials and techniques for teaching international law courses. Mr Gomez-Chico shared with them the progress of the TRILA programme, and invited their inputs on what would be most useful for local scholars regarding future CIL TRILA workshops in Vietnam.

Professor Antony Anghie (Head of International Law Teaching) and Research Associate Eugenio Gomez-Chico visited the Paññāsāstra University of Cambodia (PUC) on 29 May, as part of the outreach efforts of CIL’s Teaching and Researching International Law in Asia (TRILA) Programme. The visit was arranged by Mr Thol Theany, lecturer of international law at PUC, who participated in the TRILA Conference in 2018. Mr Thol and his colleague, Mr Phan Daro, shared with the CIL delegation their experience as teachers and researchers in Cambodian academia, in particular at PUC.

The CIL delegation met the university students from the master’s programme in international law and human rights and the bachelor’s programmes in law and international relations. The group engaged in a lively conversation on the students’ interest in international law and insights into the main international legal challenges facing Cambodia. The students overwhelmingly pointed to human rights as the area most relevant to their work, as many of them work in NGOs and government positions related to the topic.

Then Professor Anghie gave a lecture on the historical background of the current international legal order, emphasising the origins of human rights law and Asia’s role in the development of international law.

Research fellow Arron N Honniball was invited to sit on the Committee of Appointed Judges for the inaugural Netherlands Institute for the Law of the Sea (NILOS) Moot Court Competition, which was organised by Utrecht University. This competition is the first moot court that simulates proceedings under Part XV of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Judges graded the memorials submitted by the teams, which pleaded the Case Concerning Certain Activities in the DeGroot Sea before ITLOS. The final rounds of the competition took place on 22–24 May 2019.

CIL was an Associate Sponsor of the 43rd Annual Conference of the Center for Oceans Law & Policy (COLP) of the University of Virginia, which was held at World Maritime University in Malmo, Sweden, from 15 to 16 May 2019. The title of the conference was Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction: Intractable Challenges and Potential Solutions.

CIL sponsored the participation of four people at the conference. Ms Rena Lee, the President of the UN Intergovernmental Conference on BBNJ, was the keynote speaker. Associate Professor Robert Beckman served as a moderator in one of the sessions, and two of CIL’s external consultants, Captain J Ashley Roach and Professor Nilufer Oral, gave presentations. The Conference Programme and PowerPoint presentations are available on the COLP website.

Senior Research Fellow Denise Cheong presented at the Sixth Meeting of the CSCAP Study Group on Non-proliferation and Disarmament in the Asia-Pacific and the 11th ASEAN Regional Forum Inter-Sessional Meeting on Non-proliferation and Disarmament (as part of the CSCAP delegation) held on 7 and 8 April 2019 in Bali, Indonesia. On behalf of the ESI-CIL Nuclear Governance Project, she presented on the ‘Governance of Nuclear Energy—the ASEAN Approach’. This presentation discussed the role of the Southeast Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone Treaty as an intrinsic part of the approach; the relationship of the approach to international rules, standards and practices; and the importance of fundamental principles of ASEAN engagement in helping to shape the approach. This presentation was based on a review of relevant ASEAN instruments.

Dr Tara Davenport participated in the Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law (ASIL) held in Washington DC from 27 to 29 March 2019. On a panel titled ‘Deep Seabed Mining in Crowded Oceans’, she engaged in a discussion on the various challenges facing deep seabed mining 25 years after the International Seabed Authority was established.

CIL Ocean Law and Policy Programme Head, Robert Beckman, participated in a Submarine Cables Meeting in Colombo, Sri Lanka from 25 to 26 March 2019. The meeting was organised by the UNODC Global Maritime Crime Programme and the government of Sri Lanka. Associate Professor Beckman presented on causes of submarine cable faults and chaired a session on the legal issues that must be addressed to protect submarine cables.

Research Consultant Emily Choo was a judge at the Vietnam CISG Pre-Moot. She was previously invited to judge the national rounds of both the Foreign Direct Investment Moot and the Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Moot.

Research Fellow Dafina Atanasova participated in a two-day workshop titled ‘Engaging with Domestic Law in International Adjudication Factfinding or Transnational Law-Making?’ organised by the Amsterdam Center for International Law under the University of Amsterdam.

Dr Atanasova’s presentation—‘What Do We Actually Disagree About When Discussing the Fact-Law Dichotomy in International Adjudicators’ Engagement with Domestic Law?’—kick-started the workshop in a panel chaired by Professor Ingo Venzke. The paper demonstrates that the classic way of seeing domestic law in international adjudication along a fact-law divide serves as a rhetorical device with limited analytical import. Looking at the practice of investment arbitrators and WTO adjudicators, the paper brings to light the fallacy of relying on whether an adjudicator classifies domestic law as either ‘law’ or ‘fact’ for understanding its actual procedural place. It proposes a more granular analytical framework for this understanding, informed by questions that define the procedural place of foreign law in conflict of laws and suggesting the ‘otherness’ of domestic law as a more attuned lens. Indeed, judicial practice in both conflict of laws and international economic law shows that it is the recognition that different legal systems are habitually created, adjudicated and enforced by distinct, ie ‘other’ institutions, which better explains adjudicators’ approaches, independently of the formal characterisation of the ‘other’ law along a fact-law divide.

Senior Research Fellow Youna Lyons was invited as a speaker and moderator to the ASEAN Regional Forum Workshop: Implementing UNCLOS and Other International Instruments to Address Emerging Maritime Issues. The workshop included three main themes: traditional security; issues relating to the sustainable management of natural living resources and conservation of the marine environment; and climate change impacts.

Ms Youna Lyons was a moderator on the second theme and presented on the third theme on the topic of international and regional legal and institutional framework applicable to environmental threats in the Asia Pacific, including from climate change and greenhouse gas emissions from shipping. She distinguished legal instruments and regulations applicable to mitigation of greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere and in the ocean from those applicable to adaptation from climate change. She also argued that climate change affects all maritime activities. Finally, the presentation of the regional bodies that form the regional institutional framework highlighted the number of bodies concerned with climate change impact and the need for robust cooperation to ensure adequate mitigation and adaptation. The presentation is available here.

Research Fellow Amber Maggio participated in the UNODC Contact Group on the Sulu and Celebes Seas: Mapping and Responding to Global Maritime Crime, which was held in Manila, Philippines.

The meeting focussed on the recommendations from the previous contact group meeting in August 2018 and their implementation, particularly challenges, responses and the need for information sharing. In addition, the shipping industry and humanitarian organisations shared their perspectives on working with victims of maritime crimes and their families.

Dr Maggio participated in the operations working group, where the possibility of a maritime law enforcement cooperation (or agreement) was discussed.

Research Associate Dita Liliansa was invited to speak at the 6th Global Fisheries Enforcement Training Workshop on 18–22 February 2019 in Bangkok, Thailand. The workshop gathered about 135 experts and monitoring, control and surveillance practitioners from around 37 countries, to discuss best practices as well as innovative tools and technologies to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Ms Dita Liliansa delivered a presentation on ‘Implementation of Port State Measures Agreement in Southeast Asia’. The presentation offered a comparison of the regional bodies dealing with the implementation of the Port State Measures Agreement in Southeast Asia and discussed possible cooperation forward. The presentation slides can be downloaded here.

On 13 February 2019, Director Lucy Reed participated in the conference on ‘ISDS Reform: Mapping the Way Forward’ organised by the Asian Academy of International Law (AAIL) and the Hong Kong SAR Department of Justice. The welcoming speakers included Ms Teresa Cheng GBS SC JP, the Hong Kong SAR Secretary for Justice. The conference featured four panels—Investment Mediation, Appeal Mechanism for ISDS Awards, Third Party Funding in ISDS and Appointment of Arbitrators—and an Oxford Union style Debate on whether a Permanent Investment Court is a possible solution to ISDS problems. In an innovative approach, each panel had the benefit of a detailed discussion paper by a young private or government practitioner.

Professor Reed spoke on the Investment Mediation panel, on the topic of how to incentivise host governments and investors to use investor-State mediation. Also on the panel were (as pictured) Dr Anthony Neoh (AAIL Chairman), Professor Jack Coe from Pepperdine Law School and Paul Starr from King & Wood Mallesons. The discussion paper was from David Ng of the Hong Kong SAR Department of Justice.

Senior Research Fellow Hao Duy Phan was invited to speak at the 2019 Maritime Patrol Asia Conference, Asia Defence Expo & Conference Series (ADECS) on 29–30 January 2019 in Singapore. Dr Phan delivered a presentation on ‘Common Approaches to Countering Piracy and Maritime Crimes in the Asia-Pacific: Challenges and Opportunities’, which he co-authored with Ocean Law and Policy Programme Head Robert Beckman.

During the presentation, Dr Phan offered an overview of the international legal framework on countering piracy and maritime crimes. He examined the current threats to maritime security in the region and provided a detailed account of cooperative efforts in the region to respond to these threats. He also made several observations and suggestions to increase the effectiveness of regional cooperation on maritime security.

On 29 January 2019, CIL participated in the 73rd meeting of the ASEAN Coordinating Committee on Investment (CCI) held in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam. The meeting was attended by Research Associate Professor (CIL) N Jansen Calamita, Head of CIL’s Investment Law and Policy Programme, and CIL Visiting Research Consultant Dr Charalampos Giannakopoulos.

The meeting was convened to discuss, among others, proposals being put forward internationally on the topic of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) reform. Research Assoc Prof Calamita delivered a presentation, addressing the drivers for ISDS reform, available reform options, and modalities through which different reform options may be implemented.

CIL’s participation in the work of the ASEAN CCI is part of the Centre’s broader engagement with the topic of appellate mechanisms and standing tribunals in the settlement of investor-state disputes.

Senior Research Fellow Ms Denise Cheong and Research Associate S Nivedita participated in the 8th meeting of the Nuclear Energy Experts Group held from 24 to 25 January 2019 in Singapore. This meeting was organised by the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP) together with the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS). Participants discussed ways to strengthen nuclear governance in the Indo-Pacific, in light of activities and plans of current and potential nuclear-power user or exporter countries. The meeting specifically considered the potential for applying the governance framework constituted by the Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone Treaty (SEANWFZ Treaty) and its plans of action. Participants also discussed the potential implications of new technologies, such as distributed ledger and blockchain technologies, and 3D printing on nuclear governance.

On 18 January, Director Lucy Reed delivered the keynote address at the inaugural Schiefelbein Global Dispute Resolution Conference at the Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law at Arizona State University. Mr Lester Schiefelbein, the former Vice-President of Lockheed Martin Space Systems and CEO of the Silicon Valley Arbitration & Mediation Center, and his family have endowed this new Global Dispute Resolution Program for annual conferences and scholarships.

The title of Professor Reed’s address was ‘Ultima Thule: Prospects for International Commercial Mediation’, connecting the topic to Ultima Thule, the 4.5 billion-year-old rock newly discovered in outer-outer space and photographed by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft. Pending formal posting on the Shiefelbein Dispute Resolution Program website, a working copy of the address can be downloaded here.

The conference included panels on ‘Technology in Arbitration and Arbitration in Technology’, ‘China’s Belt and Road: Impressive Scale and Unprecedented Risk’ and ‘Atmospheric Arbitration: Resolving Climate Change Related Disputes’, as well as a roundtable with corporate counsel from Baker Hughes/GE Oil & Gas, Raytheon Missile Systems, Avent Inc and the American Arbitration Association. It was a global event, featuring speakers from Washington DC, San Francisco, New York, Phoenix, Houston, Tucson, London, Shenzen, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, The Hague and Mexico City.

The conference was organised by Mr Lester Schiefelbein and Professors Victoria Sahani and Art Hinshaw of the Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law, pictured here with Professor Reed.

 Rachel Tan Xi’en (CIL Practice Fellow) and Dana Chang (Wong Partnership) emerged champions at the Essex Court Chambers–Singapore Academy of Law (ECC-SAL) Mooting Competition 2019, after five rounds of competition. They won against the team from Wong Partnership in the final round held on 8 January 2019 at the Supreme Court of Singapore.

The ECC-SAL Moot is open to young lawyers from around Asia who have been qualified for no more than three years, to hone their advocacy skills. This year’s topic involved a dispute before the Singapore International Commercial Court concerning the question of the implication of terms in a contract and the validity of entire agreement clauses. The moot finals were judged by Justice Kannan Ramesh (Supreme Court of Singapore), David Foxton QC (Head of Essex Court Chambers) and Ng Jern-Fei QC (Essex Court Chambers).

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 Research Assistant JR Robert Real presented his paper entitled ‘Public Welfare and Human Dignity in the Philippines’ at the ALSA 2018 Conference: Law in the Asian Century. Held from 29 November to 1 December 2018 in Gold Coast, Australia, the conference was organised by the Asian Law and Society Association, the Australian Network for Japanese Law (ANJeL), the Asia Pacific Legal Institute of Australia (APLIA), and Bond University. His paper discusses how the Philippine Supreme Court has been using the concept of human dignity to both justify and limit the exercise of the state’s regulatory power, as well as a tool to discover new rights that advance human dignity.

Research Associate Professor N Jansen Calamita was the lead facilitator at two-day regional forum in Manila on ‘Investment Disputes, Resolution and Prevention.’ The forum was organised by the Philippine Board of Investment, with support from the ASEAN Secretariat, under the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA) Economic Cooperation Support Program (AECSP). The forum aimed to support AANZFTA Parties on effectively managing commitments, improving investor confidence in the AANZFTA investment environment, and increasing government confidence in investment policy making.

Research Assoc Prof Calamita noted that the forum served as an opportunity to share experiences among the AANZFTA Parties and helped build the capacities of participants in considering measures for the implementation and management of investment treaty commitments.

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

Head of Ocean Law and Policy Robert Beckman and Research Associate Millicent McCreath participated in the NUS-Sweden Arctic Roundtable on 21 November 2018 at the National University of Singapore (NUS). The Roundtable was organised by the Embassy of Sweden and the NUS Energy Studies Institute. Speakers included the Swedish Ambassador for Arctic Affairs, the Director-General of the Swedish Polar Institute and the Swedish Ambassador to Singapore. Representatives from several NUS research institutes outlined their research activities on the Arctic.

Associate Professor Beckman gave a brief presentation on CIL’s research on the Arctic, including the recently revised CIL Arctic Guide prepared by Captain J Ashley Roach.

Practice Fellow Rachel Tan Xi’en won the 2018 CIArb Competition on 21 November 2018. The essay competition is organised by the Singapore branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. The essay topic concerns a scenario on a culture clash between common and civil law procedures and the different approaches to taking evidence in international arbitration in the two legal systems. It invites entrants to submit a draft procedural order and an explanatory note to that order. The judging panel comprised Ms Judith Gill QC and Mr Duarte G Henriques.

This is the third time that a CIL researcher has won the CIArb Competition. In 2013 and 2015, Harpreet Kaur Dhillon and James Losari won the competition respectively.

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’.

At the 2018 American Society of International Law (ASIL) research forum, Research Associate Melissa Loja presented her paper ‘Recent Engagement with International Human Rights Norms by Courts in Southeast Asia: New Challenges to Human Rights Theories’.

She discussed that in recent cases involving arbitration and judicial immunity, Singapore courts relied on European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) norms; Malaysia’s Court of Appeal based two decisions on the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD), despite lack of legislative incorporation; the Philippine Supreme Court applied the Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearances (CPPED), which the government had repeatedly refused to ratify; and Indonesia’s Constitutional Court invoked UN human rights instruments to justify the ex post facto prosecution of the past regime for human rights violations.

This engagement with international human rights norms has three distinctive features: 1) preference for ECHR norms over AHRD norms; 2) subversion of the ethos of human rights; and 3) lack of indication that the courts see themselves as agents of an exogenous regional or global normative order.

These distinctive features cannot be adequately explained by the main universalist, pluralist and institutionalist/neo-institutionalist paradigms about international human rights norms and their application by domestic courts. A re-examination of these paradigms is imperative.

Dr Ayelet Berman presented a paper at the American Society of International Law Research Forum at UCLA. The paper is on ‘Investment Treaties and National Governance’, co-written with Research Associate Professor N Jansen Calamita. The paper sets out a conceptual framework for examining the internalisation of investment treaties in national governance. It is the draft framing paper of a project on ‘Investment Treaties and National Governance’ launched by CIL’s Investment Law and Policy research group, which examines the internalisation of investment treaties in a select group of East Asian countries.

Ocean Law and Policy Programme Head Robert Beckman participated in the 10th South China Sea International Conference organised by the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam. The conference was held from 7 to 9 November 2018 in Da Nang, Vietnam. The 10th conference in this series was attended by more than 200 participants from Vietnam, the region and many countries. A/P Beckman chaired one session, gave a presentation in another session, and was a panellist in the final wrap-up session. His presentation was entitled ‘Noncompliance and Integrity of Maritime Legal of the Maritime Legal Order’. Click on the links for the abstract and PowerPoint slides.

Dr Tara Davenport participated in the Second Workshop on ‘Developing Options for the Implementation of the Due Regard and Reasonable Regard Obligations under UNCLOS’ held in Bangkok, Thailand on 29–30 October 2018. The workshop was the second one organised by the International Seabed Authority (ISA) and the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC) to address the coexistence of submarine cables and deep seabed mining in areas beyond national jurisdiction. The workshop brought together representatives from the ISA, the ICPC, the cable industry, the mining industry, academia, and government representatives to discuss practical solutions to minimise interference with these two important uses of the oceans. Dr Davenport served as facilitator for the round-table discussions between the cable industry and deep seabed mining industry.

On 29 October–2 November 2018, CIL participated as observer in the 36th session of UNCITRAL Working Group III held in Vienna, Austria. The meeting was attended by Research Associate Professor (CIL) N Jansen Calamita, Head of CIL’s Investment Law and Policy Programme, and Dr Charalampos Giannakopoulos, CIL Visiting Research Consultant.

Convening twice annually, UNCITRAL Working Group III brings together more than 200 government officials, UN officials and NGO representatives, with a mandate to (i) identify concerns raised by the current mechanisms for resolving investor-state disputes, (ii) discuss the desirability of reform in light of the concerns identified, and (iii) propose relevant solutions. During the Vienna meeting, discussions focussed on the second part of the above three-part mandate.

Research Assoc Prof (CIL) Calamita contributed to the discussions by delivering an address on the effects of third-party funding practices on investor-state dispute settlement and arguing for the desirability of reform in this respect. CIL’s participation in the UNCITRAL Working Group III is part of the Centre’s broader engagement with the topic of reform of investor-state dispute settlement, including through the possible establishment of appellate mechanisms and standing tribunals.

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.

Ocean Law and Policy Programme Head Robert Beckman participated in a Law of the Sea Workshop in Kuala Lumpur on 18 October 2018. Organised by the Maritime Institute of Malaysia (MIMA) and the Japanese Embassy in Malaysia, the workshop was on a rules-based order for the oceans and issues pertaining to activities in the South China Sea. Associate Professor Beckman gave a presentation on ‘UNCLOS as a Rules-Based Order for the Oceans’.

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.

At The Legal Regime of Underwater Cultural Heritage and Marine Scientific Research Conference in Bodrum, Turkey, Research Fellow Sun Zhen presented a paper titled ‘Protecting Underwater Cultural Heritage in the EEZ and on the CS—Could the Marine Scientific Research Regime Play a Role?’ The conference was organised by the Research Center of the Sea and Maritime Law, DEHUKAM, Ankara University, and co-organised by the Center for Oceans Law and Policy (COLP), University of Virginia. Click here for the abstract.

CIL Director Lucy Reed delivered a keynote address on 15 September 2018 at the Conference in Commemoration of Professor David D Caron held at the Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California at Berkeley. At the time of his tragic, premature death in February 2018, Professor Caron was sitting as a judge on the Iran-US Claims Tribunal, an ad hoc judge in two ICJ cases, and an arbitrator in several complex international arbitrations. He was formerly Dean of the Dickson Poon School of Law at Kings College London and a chaired professor of law at Berkeley. Professors Reed and Caron, who were friends for some 35 years, had both served as President of the American Society of International Law and Chair of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration.

The conference, entitled ‘The Elegance of International Law’, featured high-level panels focussed on Professor Caron’s main areas of interest: international dispute resolution, legitimacy of international law and institutions, and the law of the sea and international environmental law. In her keynote—‘The David Caron Rule of X’—Professor Reed described and developed a lecture Professor Caron gave at the opening of the year in September 2017 at MIDS (Masters in International Dispute Resolution) at the Graduate Institute in Geneva. This was a work in progress, in which Professor Caron focussed on the need for international arbitrators to exercise personal discipline to limit their caseloads to the number of arbitrations they can responsibly handle—namely, a personal ‘X’ number of arbitrations—and thereby facilitate the process of more appointments for a more diverse pool of arbitrators.

The conference papers will be published by the Berkeley Journal of International Law and the Ecology Law Quarterly.

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.

Research Fellow Dafina Atanasova attended the Trade Law Forum Incheon 2018, which gathered regional perspectives on ISDS reform from Asia-Pacific states in relation to the ongoing work of UNCITRAL on the topic. Her participation is part of the broader engagement of the Centre for International Law with the topic of appellate mechanisms and standing tribunals for investor-state disputes, and more specifically with the work of UNCITRAL Working Group III.

Research Assistant JR Robert Real presented his paper entitled ‘National courts collectively creating regional norms in ASEAN’ at the Philippine Society of International Law Inaugural National Conference. Held from 6 to 7 September 2018 in Quezon City, the Philippines, the conference was organised by the Philippine Society of International Law and the University of the Philippines. Mr Real’s paper explored the role of Southeast Asian judiciaries in developing regional environmental norms amid the lack of a regional court.

Research Fellow Dr Zhen Sun participated in the ‘ReCAAP Capacity Building Workshop’ in Yangon, Myanmar, on 3–6 September 2018. ReCAAP is the first Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP). The workshop brought together 25 ReCAAP Focal Point Officers from 14 ReCAAP member states, and other law enforcement officers from Myanmar. The workshop focussed on sharing knowledge and experiences among the Focal Points, and on discussing challenges faced by the ReCAAP Information Sharing Centre and the Focal Points in dealing with piracy and armed robbery against ships in Asia.

Dr Sun gave a lecture on ‘Basics of International Law of the Sea’. In the lecture, Dr Sun gave an overview of the current legal framework of the law of the sea, discussed the differences between the definitions of piracy and armed robbery against ships, and the relevant international regulations of both activities. To access the presentation, click here.

Research Associate Rachel Tan coached the NUS team that emerged runner-up at the Asian Law Students Association (ALSA) Investment Law Moot held in Yangon from 24 to 27 August 2018. At the keenly contested final, two NUS teams battled through four intense rounds simulating an investor-state dispute before the Permanent Court of Arbitration. The runner-up team comprises second-year NUS law students: Ong Kye Jing, Wileen Saw, Timothy James Chong, and Isabella Tan.

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.

Oceans Law and Policy Programme Head 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). Associate Professor 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 Denise Cheong and Research Associates Nur Azha Putra and S Nivedita participated in the workshop on ‘Achieving the ASEAN 2025 Vision for Disaster Management: Lessons from a Worthy Journey’ held on 15 and 16 August 2018. The workshop was jointly hosted by S Rajaratnam School of International Studies and the Pacific Disaster Center, in collaboration with the ASEAN Committee on Disaster Management and the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management Centre. Discussions centred around the impact, growth and future direction of ASEAN’s regional architecture for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, and supporting mechanisms.

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.

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.

Senior Research Fellow Youna Lyons was invited as a lecturer in the 3rd Training Programme by International Ocean Institute on ‘Regional Ocean Governance Framework, Implementation of the UNCLOS and Its Related Instruments in the Southeast Asian Seas and the Indian Ocean’. The course took place on 1–28 July 2018 in Hua Hin, Thailand.

Ms Lyons’s lecture was on UNCLOS and international law, and regional legal and institutional governance in Southeast Asia. The presentation slides are available here.

The Centre for International Law successfully organised the second CIL-ANCORS Workshop on the Negotiation of Maritime Boundaries on 3 to 5 July 2018. The workshop was held in coordination with the Expanded ASEAN Maritime Forum. The workshop combined interactive lectures and supervised practical exercises, in which participants negotiated a maritime boundary between two fictitious states.

Thirty-four participants, including government officials, geographers, academics and practitioners, completed the three-day training led by renowned legal and technical experts in the negotiation of maritime boundaries.

For more information on the event, please click here.

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.

CIL Research Associate Millicent McCreath attended the conference ‘New Knowledge and Changing Circumstances in the Law of the Sea’, which was organised by the Law of the Sea Institute of Iceland and Korea Maritime Institute. The conference was held in Reykjavik from 28 to 30 June 2018. The main themes of the conference were biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction, the continental shelf regime, deep seabed mineral resources, dispute settlement in the law of the sea, climate change and the legal effects of sea level rise, and the Central Arctic Ocean Fisheries Agreement. Approximately 130 participants from all over the world attended the conference.

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.

Research Fellow Dr Dafina Atanasova participated in the workshop on political and legal theory of international courts and tribunals, organised by PluriCourts in Oslo on 18–19 June 2018.

Dr Atanasova presented her paper ‘A “Justice as Impartiality” View on the Authority of International Courts and Tribunals’.

Research Associate Millicent McCreath and Research Fellow Dr Dafina Atanasova participated in the workshop on Climate Change Litigation Scholarship organised by the Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law (APCEL) and Yale Law School in Singapore on 7–8 June 2018.

Ms McCreath presented her paper on ‘The Potential for UNCLOS Climate Change Litigation to Achieve Effective Mitigation Outcomes’. She was also the discussant on the paper by Jacqueline Peel and Jolene Lin on ‘Climate Change Litigation and Adaptation in Southeast Asia’.

Dr Atanasova was the discussant on the paper by Hui Pang on ‘Investor-State Dispute Settlement in Renewable Energy: Friend or Foe to Climate Change’.

CIL researchers Dr Hao Duy Phan, Chan Sze-Wei and Hadyu Ikrami contributed to a 2017 study by the International Law Commission on “Ways and means for making the evidence of customary international law more available”.

Associate Professor Robert Beckman and Visiting Senior Principal Research Fellow Captain Ashley Roach participated in the 42nd Annual Conference of the Center for Oceans Law and Policy of the University of Virginia, which was held in Beijing on 24–25 May 2018. The title of the conference was ‘Cooperation and Engagement in the Asia Pacific Region’. Captain Roach gave a presentation on the BBNJ Discussions, and Assoc Prof Beckman gave a presentation on ‘The Legal Regime Governing Passage on Routes Used for International Navigation through Indonesian Waters’. To see Assoc Prof Beckman’s PowerPoint presentation, click here.

Associate Professor Robert Beckman participated in 2018 Global Ocean Regime Conference organised by the Korea Maritime Institute at the Hyatt Regency, Jeju Island, Korea, from 16 to 18 May 2018. The title of the conference was ‘Promoting Cooperation in Overlapping Maritime Areas’. Assoc Prof Beckman gave a presentation on ‘Joint Arrangements in the South China Sea: Problems and Prospects’. To see his presentation, click here.

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.

Dr Ayelet Berman chaired a panel on “Investment Treaties and National Governance” at the 15th ASLI Conference 2018 in Seoul in May 2018. John Lumbantobing of the Faculty of Law, Universitas Katolik Parahyangan presented his paper “Very little spill: Internalization of investment treaties and their effects on domestic governance in Indonesia”. Younsik Kim of Sungshin University in Korea presented his paper on “Internationalisation of Investment Treaties in Korea”, and Sachinta Dias of Oxford University presented his paper on International Investment Agreements and Governance in Sri Lanka: An Analysis of Three Factual Scenarios”. This panel is part of an ongoing CIL research project on investment treaties and national governance. For more information about the project, please contact Dr Ayelet Berman.

At the 2nd Conference on Maritime Security and Coastal Surveillance Indonesia in Jakarta, Dr Zhen Sun spoke on ‘Fostering More Effective Non-Traditional Maritime Security Cooperation in Southeast Asia’ to an audience consisting of government officials, industry representatives, academics and members of other private sectors.

Dr Sun said that as non-traditional maritime security threats (eg, trafficking of drugs and humans, piracy and armed robbery against ships, etc) pose challenges to all Southeast Asian countries, coordinated efforts are required from various sectors on the national, regional and international levels. To use legal tools to address these threats, Southeast Asian countries will need to ratify and implement relevant international agreements. 

Click here to learn more about Dr Sun’s presentation.

Members of the CIL Ocean Law and Policy Programme participated in a workshop organised by INTERPOL on 17 April in Singapore entitled ‘Operation 30 Days at Sea: Asia Pacific Operational Planning Meeting’. The workshop was held as part of a year-long global project to enforce the international rules regulating marine pollution from ships. Associate Professor Beckman gave a presentation on ‘The Global Legal Regime Governing Ship-Source Pollution’. Research Fellow Dr Zhen Sun and Research Associate Ms Millicent McCreath also participated in the workshop, along with representatives from governments throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

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’.

Senior Research Fellow Ms Youna Lyons participated in the 72nd meeting of the Marine Environment Protection Committee of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), at IMO London Headquarters. She was the head of delegation for the Advisory Committee on Protection of the Sea (ACOPS).

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.

Research Assistant Mr Robert Real participated in the Frankfurt Investment Law Workshop 2018 on International Investment Law and Constitutional Law. Held on 9 and 10 March 2018, the workshop was organised by the Goethe-University Merton Centre for European Integration and International Economic Order in Frankfurt, Germany. Participants in the workshop explored the different facets of the increasing interaction between international investment law and constitutional law and critically analysed the opportunities and challenges this interaction creates. The panel topics included the (domestic) constitutional law limits of international investment law, the European Union’s constitutional limits of international investment law, the role of constitutional law in investor-state dispute settlement, and international investment law as constitutional law.

CIL Senior Research Fellow Mr Anthony Wetherall participated in the seventh session of the International Nuclear Law Essentials (INLE) Course, which was organised by the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the Centre for International Law. The course was held for the first time outside of France, in Singapore, from 26 February to 2 March 2018.

On 28 February, Mr Wetherall delivered a presentation on nuclear security and also participated in a panel discussion on nuclear security and safeguards. Mr Wetherall’s presentation can be downloaded here, and a timeline on developments in international nuclear security can be downloaded here.

On 1 February 2018, CIL Director Professor Lucy Reed spoke at a programme at the Supreme Court entitled ‘The Singapore International Commercial Court’s potential to advance the rule of law’. The conference was sponsored by the Singapore International Commercial Court (SICC), the Singapore International Law Association and Freshfields (Singapore). The speakers included two judges on the SICC, Justice Quentin Lowe and Sir Vivian Ramsey, as well as Mr Francis Xavier SC of Rajah & Tann, and Mr Nicholas Lingard and Mr Robert Kirkness of Freshfields. Professor Reed spoke on what characteristics make an international commercial court truly international.

CIL Director Professor Lucy Reed served as faculty at the 2017 Summer Institute of the ASEAN Human Rights Resource Centre (HRRC) held in Bali on 29–31 January 2018 (the volcano risk having postponed the original summer date). The chairman of the conference was HE Ambassador Ong Keng Yong, who is the chairman of HRRC and a member of the CIL Board of Directors. The theme of the conference was ‘Trade, Investment, and the Rule of Law in ASEAN’. Professor Reed spoke on ‘The Rule of Law and Dispute Resolution in ASEAN’ and moderated a panel on ‘Rights Dimensions in Trade and Investment in the ASEAN Community’.

The HRRC is a non-profit academic centre headquartered at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta, in partnership with 11 other academic institutions in 7 out of 10 ASEAN member states. Its mission is to support a rights-based approach to ASEAN integration through research, training and education, and its core thematic areas are rule of law, business and human rights, and the rights of vulnerable populations. The Summer Institute is the HRRC’s signature annual event, organised in collaboration with the WSD Handa Center for Human Rights and International Justice at Stanford University and Udayana University.

CIL and the K.G. Jebsen Centre for the Law of the Sea (JCLOS), UiT The Arctic University of Norway held a side event at Arctic Frontiers 2018 in Tromsø, Norway on 24 January 2018 to launch the book entitled Governance of Arctic Shipping: Balancing Rights and Interests of Arctic States and User States. The book was a collaborative effort of CIL and JCLOS. The book sets out the legal framework that governs Arctic shipping, giving specific consideration to the roles of the International Maritime Organization and the Arctic Council, and compares the rights, interests, positions and practice of Arctic coastal states with those of user states, with particular emphasis on China, Japan and South Korea.

At the side event of Arctic Frontiers 2018, Associate Professor Robert C Beckman, CIL’s Head of Ocean Law Policy and Programme, presented a lecture on ‘The Cooperative Mechanism in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore: A Model for the Arctic?’.

This meeting was organised by the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP) together with the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies with the support of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Topics covered included ways to strengthen nuclear governance in the Asia-Pacific, the future of nuclear power development in Asia with a focus on small modular reactors (SMR) and the networks that enable trade in nuclear technology, and radioactive materials in the Asia Pacific. Discussions also addressed what role academic research and international collaboration networks play in building nuclear-related tacit knowledge, and how a better understanding of the networks that undergird trade and knowledge transfer in nuclear-related industries and institutions might help to build commercial opportunities and a more effective culture of nuclear security in the Asia Pacific. The key findings of the discussions and the programme of the meeting can be found here.

Three members of the CIL Ocean Law and Policy team—Head of Programme Associate Professor Robert Beckman, Dr Zhen Sun and Ms Millicent McCreath—attended the 2018 Arctic Frontiers Conference in Tromso, Norway from 21 to 25 January 2018. The CIL team met with staff and students from the Jebsen Centre for Law of the Sea at the University of Tromso (UiT), and Assoc Prof Beckman gave a guest lecture at the UiT. The book Governance of Arctic Shipping was officially launched at a side event at the conference, and Assoc Prof Beckman, one of the book editors, spoke at the book launch. The book was edited by staff from UiT and CIL and was published by Brill. The CIL team also stopped in Oslo to visit the Scandinavian Institute for Maritime Law, where Assoc Prof Beckman gave a guest lecture to graduate students and faculty members at the University of Oslo law school.

Head of CIL Oceans Law and Policy Programme Associate Professor Robert Beckman participated in the 9th South China Sea Conference organised by the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam on 27–28 November 2017 in Ho Chi Minh City. The title of the conference was ‘Cooperation for Regional Security and Development’. Assoc Prof Beckman made a presentation to lead the panel discussion in the final session on the code of conduct for the South China Sea. He also chaired the session on Legal Dimensions in the South China Sea.

Head of CIL Oceans Law and Policy Programme Associate Professor Robert Beckman was invited to give a presentation during a plenary session of the ASEAN Conference on Reducing Marine Debris in ASEAN Region. The conference was held in Phuket, Thailand from 22 to 23 November 2017. Assoc Prof Beckman’s presentation was entitled ‘Legal Perspective: Transboundary Issues of Marine Debris’. CIL Research Associate Millicent McCreath also attended the conference and participated in the workshop on the second day on developing a project for the management of the plastic value chain to reduce plastic marine litter.

CIL Senior Research Fellow Youna Lyons participated in the KIOST/JVDI 2017 Regional Conference on the Ocean Policy for the East Asia and the Pacific Islands in Nadi-Fiji on 16–18 Nov 2017. The theme was ‘SDG 14 and Ocean Issues for the Pacific Islands and the East Asia’. She presented on the topic of ‘UNCLOS as the Cornerstone in the Implementation of SDG 14: A Central, Integrative and Framing Role’.

CIL’s Investment Law and Policy Programme team organised the workshop on ‘Investment Treaties and National Governance’ on 16–17 November 2017, in the Asian context. The workshop had a selective call for papers, and participating researchers (mostly from the Asia-Pacific region) presented case studies assessing the impact of investment treaties on national governance in India, Indonesia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

The workshop brought together researchers to discuss and unpack the following questions in the Asian context. What impact do investment treaties have on national governance? Although a considerate amount of research has examined the impact of investment treaties on FDI, very little is known about their effects on national governance. Are governments aware of their investment treaty obligations? Do they internalize their obligations, and if yes, how? Do investment treaties lead to improvements in the rule of law and good governance, or do they undermine national policy autonomy?