Researchers' Activities

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.