Researchers' Activities

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.