Researchers' Activities

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.