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.

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.

CIL Research Fellow Leonardo Bernard participated at the Conference on Maritime Confidence Building Measure in the South China Sea on 11-13 August 2013 in Sydney, Australia. The Conference was organized by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Leo joined the second panel on Maritime cooperation in the South China Sea, which addressed issues associated with current state of maritime cooperation and prospective areas for cooperation. His presentation was “Joint Development of Oil and Gas Resources in the South China Sea”. To download the draft conference paper, 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 ASEAN External Agreements, ASEAN as a Negotiator in International Fora, ASEAN Instruments of Governance and Models of Supranational Legal Integration, ASEAN Dispute Settlement and the ASEAN Legal Service at Plenary 2 of the ASEAN Integration Through Law Project: ASEAN Governance, Management and External Relations at the Hotel Aryaduta, Jakarta, Indonesia. CIL senior experts, CIL Director Professor Robert Beckman and Professor Walter Woon, shared their work on the ASEAN dispute settlement mechanisms and ASEAN Legal Service. This Plenary was hosted jointly with the Universitas Pelita Harapan. For more information, please click here.

CIL Researchers Ms. Ranyta Yusran and Ms. Harpreet Kaur Dhillon attended the Hague Academy of International Law’s Summer Programme on Public International Law, held at the Peace Palace from 8 July 2013 to 26 July 2013. They participated in a general course conducted by Professor James Crawford (Whewell Professor at the University of Cambridge) on the Practice and Process of the Law of Nations, and special courses conducted by Professor Lucius Caflisch (Member of the International Law Commission), Professor Eyal Benvenisti (Tel Aviv University), Professor Jean-Marc Sorel (Sorbonne Law School), Professor Robert Kolb (University of Geneva), Professor Anna Wyrozumska (University of Lodz), Professor Bruno Nascimbene (University of Milan) and Professor Ki Gab Park (Korea University). The Summer Programme was attended by more than 350 participants coming from over 90 Countries.

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 the Legal Service, Secretariat and Civil Service in ASEAN, ASEAN Economic Community and ASEAN Regional Integration at Plenary 1 of the ASEAN Integration Through Law Project: General Architecture of ASEAN at the Mandarin Orchard Hotel, Singapore. For more information, please click here.

CIL participated in the 18th session of the Rhodes Academy of Oceans Law and Policy in Rhodes, Greece as a full sponsor, together with the Center for Oceans Law and Policy, University of Virginia School of Law (Charlottesville, USA); the Aegean Institute of the Law of the Sea and Maritime Law (Rhodes, Greece); the Law of the Sea Institute of Iceland (Reykjavik, Iceland); the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law (Heidelberg, Germany); and The Netherlands Institute for the Law of the Sea, Utrecht University (Utrecht, The Netherlands). CIL Director Robert Beckman lectured at the Academy, where he delivered three seminars on ship-source pollution, non ship-source pollution and the South China Sea disputes and co-supervised a workshop on the international regulation of shipping. He also served as one of the four examiners for the oral examination at the end of the course, together with Judges Wolfrum, Cot and Golitsyn from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. CIL Research Fellow Dr Hao Duy Phan won the Best Oralist Award at the Academy. Dr Hao Duy Phan, CIL Research Associate Monique Page and Cambodian official, Mr. Sok Khavan, participated in the Academy under the sponsorship of CIL.

CIL Director Robert Beckman participated in the ‘CIL Roundtable on the South China Sea Disputes’. The Roundtable was held at the Orchard Hotel, Singapore. Prof Beckman presented a paper on ‘The UNCLOS Dispute Settlement Regime’. CIL Research Fellows Tara Davenport and Leonardo Bernard played a major role in organising the Roundtable, while CIL Research Fellow Hao Duy Phan and CIL Research Associate Monique Page served as rapporteurs. For more information on the Roundtable, please click here.

CIL Director Robert Beckman and CIL Research Fellow Leonardo Bernard participated at the International Symposium on Peaceful Use of the Sea and Maritime on 22-23 June 2013 in Hangzhou, China. The Conference was organized by Centre for Ocean Law and Governance at Guanghua Law School, Zhengjian University. Prof Beckman and Leo joined the third panel on peaceful means for maritime dispute settlement together with Dustin Kuan-Hsiung Wang from national Taiwan Normal University and Anne Hsiu-An Hsiao from National Chengchi University, Taiwan. Prof Beckman presented a paper on “Framework and Issues for Joint Development of Hydrocarbon Resources”. To download the draft conference paper, click here; and to download the PowerPoint slides, click here.

CIL Director Robert Beckman presented a lunchtime talk on the South China Sea Disputes for members of the Europe-ASEAN Business Alliance (EABA).

CIL Senior Research Fellow Dr Tan Hsien-Li was invited to share her expertise at the Regional Track Two Meeting “ASEAN Human Rights Mechanisms: Challenges and Ways Forward” and engage with officials from the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), ASEAN Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC) and ASEAN Committee on the Implementation of the ASEAN Declaration on the Promotion and Protection of Migrant Workers (ACMW). This meeting was hosted by the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism and was held in Bangkok, Thailand.

CIL Director Robert Beckman made a presentation on Maritime Security and Submarine Cables on 8 June 2013 at a Meeting of the CSCAP Study Group on Maritime Security at the Trader’s Hotel in Singapore. For his presentation, click here.