Researchers' Activities

CIL Senior Research Fellow Dr Tan Hsien-Li presented her paper on “International Human Rights Law, Regional Mechanisms and ASEAN: Disconnected Paradigms” at the European University Institute’s Human Rights Day Colloquium held in Florence, Italy.

CIL Director Robert Beckman participated in a Roundtable on Maritime Security in East Asia.The Roundtable was organised by the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) and the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA) and held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Singapore. Prof Beckman made a presentation on ‘International Law & Maritime Security in East Asia’.

On 8 December 2013, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) and its Center for World Trade Studies held a seminar with the theme of “Promoting Fair Trade to Achieve Sustainable Development through Doha Agenda”, a part of its three-day event, the 1st Model World Trade Organization (WTO). CIL Associate Junianto James Losari, representing Prof. Michael Ewing-Chow as the WTO Chair at NUS, delivered a talk on Diplomacy in World Trade Organization. In his talk, James explained about the dynamic of negotiations during the 9th WTO Ministerial Conference in Bali. With the consensus decision-making mechanism, every Member has an equal vote. With the number of developing countries outweighing the number of developed countries, it would be naive to argue that the WTO remains a club of rich nations or developed countries. He further observed the various advantages of having the Bali Package agreed by all WTO Members by also looking at the counterfactual. Besides James, Bapak Riza Noer Arfani, MA (WTO Chair at UGM) also delivered a talk on “Sustainable Development through Trade” which continues on exploring the results of the Bali Package and its impacts for developing countries.

A/P Michael Ewing-Chow, Head of CIL’s Trade and Investment Law and Policy Programme and WTO Chair, NUS and CIL Associate Junianto James Losari attended the 9th Bali WTO Ministerial Conference which took place in Bali on 3-7 December 2013, along with the side event “Bali Trade and Development Symposium” held by the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD). The President of the Republic of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono delivered his opening speech and officially declared the Conference open on 3 December 2013. During the conference, negotiations had been very intense with serious concern that a deal might not be struck after all. In fact, the initial three-day Ministerial Conference (MC) had to be extended… [Read more]

CIL researchers participated in the 4th Biennial Conference of the Asian Society of International Law in New Delhi, India on 14-16 November 2013. They presented their papers in a panel titled “ASEAN: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly”. CIL Research Fellow Dr Hao Duy PHAN opened the Panel with a discussion on ASEAN’s role on intra-regional security (download in PDF format) followed by a presentation from CIL Research Fellow Mr Leonardo BERNARD on the use of extra-ASEAN dispute settlement mechanisms for ASEAN disputes (download in PDF format). The third presentation was delivered by CIL Research Associate Ms Ranyta YUSRAN on ASEAN and human rights (download in PDF format). Finally, Professor Michael Ewing Chow, Head of Trade and Investment Law and Policy of CIL, concluded the panel with a presentation on the purpose-driven architecture of dispute settlement and suggestions to strengthen the architecture of ASEAN (download in PDF format). The Panel was chaired by Professor Simon Chesterman, Dean of NUS Law Faculty. [View photo from event.]

CIL Senior Research Fellow Youna Lyons played a key role as CIL’s point person in organising a marine science, engineering, law and policy workshop entitled ‘Rigs-to-Reefs Prospects for Large Scale Artificial Reefs in Tropical Southeast Asian Seas’. The Workshop was organised jointly by CIL, the NUS Tropical Marine Science Institute (TMSI) and the NUS Centre for Offshore Engineering (CORE). CIL Director Robert Beckman made a presentation on ‘The International Legal Regime Governing the Disposal and Re-Use of Offshore Platforms’. Youna Lyons made a presentation on ‘Rigs-to-Reef in Southeast Asia: Legal and Policy Issues’. For more information and their presentations, click here.

CIL Director Robert Beckman participated in the 5th International Workshop on the South China Sea in Hanoi, Vietnam. The Workshop was organised by the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam and its title was ‘The South China Sea: Cooperation for Regional Security and Development’. Prof Beckman presented a paper entitled ‘Disputed Areas in the South China Sea’. For a copy of his presentation, click here. For a copy of his draft paper, click here.

CIL Staff organised and participated in the Conference on Transparency in the WTO: Between Legislation and Litigation. The Conference was held at Fort Canning Hotel, Singapore. CIL Head of Trade and Investment Law and Policy, Prof Michael Ewing-Chow presented a paper on the ‘Conceptual Framework of Transparency in WTO Context’. While CIL Research Fellow, Dr Lin Lin and CIL Research Associate, Junianto James Losari presented papers on ‘TPRs in China’ and ‘ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Scorecard and TPR’, respectively. Prof Michael Ewing-Chow, CIL Senior Research Fellow, Melania Vilarasau Slade and Dr Lin Lin led the organisation of the Conference. For more information about the Conference, click here.

CIL Senior Research Fellow Youna Lyons was invited as a speaker to the 2013 APAC Offshore Decommissioning Training Workshop organized by DecomWorld. She was a member of the regulatory panel and made a presentation on the international legal framework for rigs-to-reefs (download in PDF format) and on International law on offshore decommissioning in Southeast Asia (download in PDF format).

CIL Staff organised and participated in the 2nd Singapore Trade Dialogue on the World Trading System. The Conference was held at Fort Canning Hotel, Singapore. CIL Head of Trade and Investment Law and Policy, Prof Michael Ewing-Chow, CIL Senior Research Fellow, Melania Vilarasau Slade and CIL Research Fellow, Dr. Lin Lin led the organisation of the Conference. Prof Michael Ewing-Chow chaired the panel discussion on Trade and Investment Coherence in which CIL Senior Principal Research Fellow, Mr Chris Thomas QC was a speaker. CIL Research Associate, Junianto James Losari was the Rapporteur for the session. For more information about the Conference, click here.

CIL Staff organised and participated in the first CIL Conference on Food Security and Trade. The conference was at Fort Canning Hotel, Singapore. The Conference brought together leading experts on international trade in agriculture to provide an analysis of the ways in which the current international trade system can affect food security. CIL Head of Trade and Investment Law and Policy, Prof Michael Ewing-Chow presented a paper on the relationship between self-sufficiency and food security ‘From Self-Sufficiency to Collective Food Security’ and CIL Senior Research Fellow, Melania Vilarasau Slade presented a paper on ‘The Role of International Law in Tackling the Resource Challenge’. Prof Michael Ewing-Chow and Melanie Vilarasau Slade led the organisation of the Conference. For more information about the Conference, click here.

CIL Director Robert Beckman participated in a conference organised by the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, Haikou, Hainan, China. The title of the conference was ‘The South China Sea: UNCLOS and State Practice’. Prof Beckman presented a paper entitled ‘The UNCLOS Dispute Settlement System’. For a copy of his presentation, click here. For a copy of his draft paper, click here.

On 22 – 25 October 2013, CIL Research Associates Mr. Junianto James LOSARI and Ms. Ranyta YUSRAN attended the 2013 Padjdjaran International Legal Conference Series, “Regional Perspectives on Law and Human Rights: Where are we not and where are we heading?” in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. The Conference was organised by the Law Faculty of Padjadjaran University and opened by the Dean of Universitas Padjadjaran. Mr. LOSARI presented his paper on “ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Agreement: Will Indonesia’s BITs Obligations be Irrelevant?” and Ms. YUSRAN presented her paper on “Combating Trafficking in Women and Children in Southeast Asia: the ASEAN Framework”. The Conference was attended by participants coming from, among others, Japan, Australia, the United States, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Taiwan. To download Mr LOSARI’s paper, click here. To download his Power Point Slides in PDF format, click here. To download Ms YUSRAN’s Power Point Slides in PDF format, click here.

CIL Senior Research Fellow Dr Tan Hsien-Li was invited to share her expertise on ASEAN regional integration as part of the Singapore contingent led by Professor Tommy Koh at the 8th China-Singapore Forum held in Beijing, China. The meeting was comprised of senior officials and representatives from both countries at which they shared their nation-building experiences on such topics as urban growth, housing, income gaps, economic cooperation and wider regional cooperation initiatives.

CIL Director Robert Beckman participated in the APEC Workshop on ‘Enhancing Supply Chain Connectivity: Submarine Telecommunications Cable Resilience in the Asia-Pacific Region’. The Workshop was organised by Australia and held at the Pullman Bali Legian Nirwanna, Bali Indonesia. Prof Beckman made a presentation on the international obligations of governments to protect submarine telecommunications cables. For a copy of his presentation, click here. CIL Research Associate Monique Page also participated in the Workshop.

CIL Head of Trade and Investment Law and Policy Professor Michael Ewing-Chow was invited to teach at the Foreign Trade University in Hanoi, Vietnam, where he taught the course titled ‘Investment Law’ to students of the Masters of Trade and Investment Program on 14-18 October 2013.

CIL Senior Research Fellow Dr Tan Hsien-Li participated in the CIL Fireside Chat on ASEAN and Human Rights, chaired by Professor S Jayakumar and Professor Tommy Koh. She discussed the impact of the rule of law in ASEAN and Human Rights on regional and national levels. For more information, click here.

CIL Senior Research Fellow Dr Tan Hsien-Li was invited to share her work on human rights in ASEAN at the Human Rights Colloquium held at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. In particular, she was tasked to discuss the vulnerabilities of the protection mechanisms in the Human Rights Commissions of the League of Arab States, Organization of Islamic Cooperation and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

On 19 September 2013, CIL Senior Research Fellow Youna Lyons took part as speaker and facilitator to the Rigs-to-Reef workshop organized by Universiti Technologi Petronas (UTP) Offshore Engineering Centre (OECE) at Impiana KLCC, Kuala Lumpur. She made a presentation on the international legal issues surrounding rigs-to-reefs in Southeast Asia. This presentation which focused on the development of Rigs-to-Reef in Malaysia is a prelude to the regional level workshop on the Prospects for Rigs-to-Reefs in Southeast Asia co-organized by CIL on 12-13 November 2013. To download Youna’s presentation in PDF format, click here.

A/P Michael Ewing-Chow, Head of CIL’s Trade and Investment Law and Policy Programme and WTO Chair, NUS was invited by the Rajaratnam School of International Studies to speak at their Workshop on Governance of East Asian Regional Economic Architectures: The Dynamics of Regional and Global Economic Governance on 10 September 2013. Prof Ewing-Chow spoke on how the ASEAN Economic Community still relies on the WTO for many trade issues and how the WTO Trade Policy Review Mechanism was more transparent than the ASEAN Scorecard. However, he also expressed the view that the ASEAN International Investment Agreements were WTO Plus rules that were useful for the integration of the ASEAN production networks. Nonetheless, there was a real need to see how more corporation between the WTO and ASEAN could be achieved. To download Prof Ewing-Chow’s presentation in PDF format, click here.

CIL Research Fellow Leonardo Bernard participated at the Conference on Global Ocean Issues and Challenges on 9 September 2013 in Dankook University, Korea. The Conference was organized by the Wooseok Institute of Korean Territory Studies, Dankook University in cooperation with the Korea Institute of Maritime Strategy and SLOC Study Group-Korea. Leo spoke on Cooperative Mechanism in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, which addressed issues associated with current state of maritime cooperation under Article 43 of UNCLOS. Leo was also invited to attend the Conference celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Korea Coast Guard on 11 September 2013 at Incheon, Korea.

CIL Director Robert Beckman and CIL Senior Research Fellow Youna Lyons took part at Pacem in Maribus XXXIV in Bangkok, on 5-8 September 2013. Professor Beckman co-chaired the theme 2 of the conference on the implementation of UNCLOS in Southeast Asia and Youna Lyons was co-rapporteur for this theme.

CIL Research Associate, Junianto James Losari, participated at the International Law Association Regional Conference 2013 held in Cape Sounion, Greece, on 29-31 August 2013. The conference was hosted by the Hellenic Branch of the ILA and was held at the premise of the European Public Law Organization. This year’s conference took the theme Imperium Juris: Governance, Trade Resources. James presented a paper that he wrote together with Prof. Michael Ewing-Chow (Head of Trade and Investment Law and Policy of CIL) in one of the panels on trade. The paper titled “Countermeasures in International Trade Law and their Illegality in International Investment Law”, analyses the interaction between the trade and investment regimes and the issue that arises in it. To download the draft conference paper, click here; and to download the PowerPoint slides in PDF format, click here.

CIL Senior Research Fellow Dr Tan Hsien-Li presented her study, co-authored with Professor Alison Duxbury of the Melbourne Law School at the University of Melbourne, on “Can ASEAN Take Human Rights Seriously?” at the Public Plenary on the Rule of Law in the ASEAN Community held in Singapore. For more information, click here.

Professor Joseph Weiler, Director of the CIL ASEAN Integration Through Law Project (NUS Law School and University Professor at the NYU School of Law) convened and chaired the discussions on International and ASEAN Law in the ASEAN 10 National Jurisdictions, Dispute Settlement Mechanisms and Human Rights at Plenary 3 of the ASEAN Integration Through Law Project: The Rule of Law in the ASEAN Community at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, Singapore. CIL Director Professor Robert Beckman and Research Fellows Dr Tan Hsien-Li, Mr Leonardo Bernard and Ms Ranyta Yusran shared their work on ASEAN dispute settlement mechanisms, international and ASEAN law in the domestic jurisdictions of ASEAN states and human rights. For more information, please click here.