Researchers' Activities

Professor Lucy Reed, CIL Director, represented the Centre at the 111th Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law in Washington DC on 12–15 April 2017. Professor Reed was President of the American Society of International Law from 2008 to 2010. With the topical theme of ‘What International Law Values’, highlights of the meeting included: the Grotius Lecture by Harvard University Professor David Armitage entitled ‘Civil War Time: From Grotius to the Global War on Terror’; an interview by New York University Law School Professor Philip Alston of Hudson Medal Winner Professor Georges Abi-Saab; an Assembly address by Professor Philippe Sands on the origins of the ideas of ‘genocide’ and ‘crimes against humanity’ as illustrated in his new book East West Street; and a keynote address by the new General Counsel of the World Bank Group, Ms Sandie Okoro, on gender-based violence entitled ‘Seen and Not Heard’. NUS Law Faculty Dean and CIL Board Deputy Chairman, Professor Simon Chesterman, spoke on the panel on ‘Claims Against the United Nations: From Within and Without’. Ayelet Berman, soon to join CIL as a Senior Research Fellow, spoke on the panel on “The Rise of Multistakeholder Global Governance’. Professor Reed, Dean Chesterman and NUS Professor Tony Anghie attended the Colleague Societies Breakfast as representatives of the Asian Society of International Law. [Photos]

On 22–23 February 2017, CIL Director Lucy Reed participated in several events at Pepperdine University School of Law in California, which is the home of the well-known Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution. Professor Reed was interviewed by Professor Tom Stipanowich, Dean of the Straus Institute, and Ms Maria Chedid, arbitration partner at Baker & McKenzie in San Francisco, in the inaugural international commercial arbitration ‘A Conversation With…’. Professor Reed spoke to Pepperdine/Straus law students and LLM candidates about the practice of international arbitration and, having judged the final Vis Moot rounds in both Vienna and Hong Kong, was warmly welcomed by the Vis team to sit a practice round. Professor Reed also had meetings on arbitration curricula, including with Professor Jack Coe, a leading international arbitration academic and rapporteur for the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the U.S. Law of International Commercial Arbitration.

On 16 February 2017, CIL’s Christopher Thomas QC was a discussant at the symposium on “International Investment Arbitration Across Asia” organised by the Centre for Asian and Pacific Law at the University of Sydney (CAPLUS) and by the Sydney Centre for International Law (SCIL). The following day, he spoke at the “SCIL International Law Year in Review Conference” on the prospects for and challenges to plurilateral and multilateral treaties in the area of international investment protection.

CIL Research Fellow Dr Zhen Sun participated in a Conference on ‘The Russian Far East, Arctic, and China: Reshaping Northeast Asia in the 21st Century?’ on 25-26 May 2017 in Cambridge, the United Kingdom. The Conference was organised by the Center for Rising Powers and took place at the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge. Dr Sun delivered a presentation on “Navigation Rights under UNCLOS: Application in the Arctic Ocean” under the Panel on UNCLOS. To download her presentation slides, click here.

CIL Senior Research Fellow Youna Lyons participated in the Meeting of the Scientific Group of the London Convention and Protocol on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter as an observer member of the delegation of the Advisory Committee on Protection of the Sea. The meeting was held at the International Maritime Organization in London on 27-31 March 2017.

Professor Robert Beckman (Head of CIL’s Ocean Law and Policy Programme), Dr Hao Duy Phan (CIL Senior Research Fellow) and Dr Lynn Kuok (CIL Senior Visiting Research Fellow) were invited to participate in the workshop on “Understanding Freedoms of Navigation-ASEAN Perspectives” on 7 March 2017 in Singapore. The workshop was organized by the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS) under the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Professor Beckman presented an “Overview of the International Navigational Regimes”, and Dr Hao Duy Phan spoke about “Vietnam’s Regulations on Navigational Rights of User States in its Maritime Zones”. To see Professor Beckman’s PowerPoint presentation, click here.

CIL Senior Research Fellows Mr Anthony Wetherall and Ms Denise Cheong and ESI Research Associate Mr Nur Azha Putra participated in the 8th annual Nuclear Power Asia Conference (NPA 2017) held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 7 to 8 March 2017. This year’s event was co-hosted by the Malaysian Nuclear Power Corporation (MNPC) and attended by over 200 international and regional stakeholders including representatives from industry, government and academia. Mr Wetherall was a panellist in the keynote panel discussion on ASEAN development, where he identified ways to strengthen ASEAN nuclear governance including the need for the region to establish an emergency preparedness and response (EPR) framework to deal with nuclear accidents. He was also a panellist in the discussion on the challenges in the construction of new nuclear power plants, where he spoke on the legal and policy challenges associated with a future deployment of small modular reactors (SMRs). He also chaired the session entitled “Advanced technology for safety & security”. The programme of the conference is available here. [View image from event]

On 3 March 2017, Research Associate Professor (CIL) N. Jansen Calamita, Head of CIL’s Investment Law and Policy Programme, was an invited speaker at a conference at Blackstone Chambers, London, titled ‘Current Issues in Rule of Law and International Trade and Development’. He spoke about investment treaties, foreign investment and the rule of law, addressing both whether investment treaties lead to higher levels of investment in the signatory states and whether investment treaties lead to improvements in the rule of law. His slides are available here.

On 27-28 February 2017, Research Associate Professor (CIL) N. Jansen Calamita, Head of CIL’s Investment Law and Policy Programme, gave lectures at University College London and the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at the University of Cambridge. He spoke on the compatibility of the European Union’s new investment tribunal system with existing instruments of the investment treaty regime, such as the ICSID Convention and the New York Convention. A summary of his remarks was reported in Global Arbitration Review. His paper is presently in prepublication review.

CIL Senior Research Fellows Ms Denise Cheong and Mr Anthony Wetherall, as well as ESI Research Associates Mr Nur Azha Putra and Ms Ira Martina Drupady, participated in the 6th meeting of the Nuclear Energy Experts Group held from 27 to 28 February 2017 in Singapore. This meeting was organised by the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP) together with the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Mr Wetherall presented a discussion paper on the potential future deployment to emerging countries of small modular reactors (SMRs), including transportable nuclear power plants (TNPPs). In this context, he proposed the development of a ‘package approach’ to the establishment and implementation of national nuclear legislative and regulatory frameworks. The researchers participated in a number of discussions, including on the prospects of nuclear power growth in the Asia Pacific region and the options for strengthening nuclear governance. Mr Wetherall’s discussion paper can be downloaded here.