Author Archives: N.F. Coelho

The Institut du Droit Économique de la Mer (INDEMER) is organizing an international conference entitled “Knowing the Oceans for Achieving Sustainable Development”. The event will address both scientific and legal aspects of marine scientific research activities. It will take place at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco on 27 and 28 April 2017. The programme is available here and more information (in French) is available here.

The Centre for International Law (National University of Singapore) is hosting a conference entitled “High Seas Governance: Gaps and Challenges”. This event will explore some of the gaps in the governance of the high seas in UNCLOS. It will examine the relationship between UNCLOS and other existing international instruments and mechanisms that protect the sensitive marine environment, and also explore trends in environmental policy and governance. The event will take place on 24-25 April 2017 in Singapore, and registration is required. More information is available here.

The JCLOS will hold a seminar on the topic of “At-sea enforcement and naval warfare”. The event will take place on 20 September 2017 in Tromsø, Norway. The program of the event is available here. Registration is required and open until 1 July 2017; it can be done here.

The JCLOS and FNI will host a side event on the “possible implications of a BBNJ (biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction) Agreement for Arctic marine governance”. The side event is part of the upcoming negotiating session towards a new treaty on marine biodiversity at the United Nations in New York. The side event will be held on 5 April 2017, 13.15-14.30, in Conference Room 11 at UN Headquarters. More information here.

The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea is organizing another event to celebrate its twenty years of existence (see our previous report here). This event, entitled “ITLOS at 20: Looking into the Future”, will occur on 18 March 2017 at the premises of the tribunal in Hamburg, Germany. Following the presentations, this event will feature a round table entitled “A user-friendly Tribunal in the service of the international community”. The program is available here; registration is required.

The Centre for East Asian Studies in Groningen, the Netherlands, is organizing a workshop entitled “Navigating the South China Sea: Challenges and Opportunities”. This event intends to look into some recent developments in the South China Sea area. On the one hand, it will focus on the South China Sea arbitration. On the other hand, the workshop will concentrate on the South China Sea politics and dispute settlement in the future. The event will occur on 10 March 2017, and the program is available here.

The Frankfurt Investment Law Workshop 2017 will address the topic “Oceans and Space: New Frontiers in Investment Protection?”. The workshop,  will be held at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, Germany on 10 and 11 March 2017. It is expected to “look at new models of balancing regulatory and commercial interests and ask how the law of the sea, space law and international investment law can interact to shape investment protection regimes beyond areas of territorial sovereignty”. The program of the event is available here.

The European Shipping Week will take place in Brussels from 27 February to 3 March 2017. This event is intended to be a platform where policy-makers from the main EU institutions will meet and engage with European shipowners and other stakeholders from the shipping sector. It is an initiative of the European Community Shipowners’ Associations and is run by a Steering Group made up of Europe’s main shipping organizations as well as the European Commission and Shipping Innovation. The program of the main Conference entitled “European Shipping Policy: Delivering Global Competitiveness, Quality and Sustainability” can be found here and the calendar of the remaining events is here.

The Netherlands Institute for the Law of the Sea (NILOS) and the Utrecht Centre for Water Ocean and Sustainability Law (UCWOSL) organize a symposium discussing the pertinent legal issues arising from the PCA Award on The South China Sea Arbitration (The Republic of Philippines v. The People’s Republic of China). The symposium will take place at the Raadzaal of the Utrecht University School of Law (Achter Sint Pieter 200) on 7 December 2016. The programme of the event can be found here.

World Maritime Day has been celebrated at IMO Headquarters on 29 September 2016. The theme for this year’s edition was “Shipping: indispensable to the world”. This theme was chosen to focus on the critical link between shipping and global society and to raise awareness of the relevance of the role of IMO as the global regulatory body for international shipping. More information about this event is available in this background paper.

A Parallel Event will be held in Istanbul, Turkey, from 4 to 6 November 2016. It includes a conference, the program of which is already available here.

The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea will be celebrating its 20th anniversary in October 2016. On this occasion, a one-and-a-half day international symposium will be held on 5 and 6 October 2016. One of the events is entitled “The contribution of the Tribunal to the Rule of Law” and its aim is to highlight the role played by the Tribunal over the last 20 years in the system for the peaceful settlement of law of the sea-related disputes set out in Part XV of the UNCLOS. The ceremony will occur at the Tribunal’s premises, as reported by the President of ITLOS here (paragraphs 33 and 34), followed the next day by a reception at the City Hall of Hamburg.

The Association Internationale du Droit de la Mer (AssIDMer) is holding its VI Ordinary Colloquium. The event takes place at the Università degli Studi del Sannio, in Benevento, Italy, on 3-4 November 2016. The topic of this year’s edition is “International Tribunals and the Interpretation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea”. The program of the event is available here.

The Transnational Law Institute of King’s College London, in collaboration with the Law of the Sea Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, is hosting a conference entitled “Stress Testing the Law of the Sea”. The event is to be held at the Dickson Poon School of Law on 30 September and 1 October 2016. The program of the conference is available here. More information can also be found here.

The Centre for International Law of the National University of Singapore is hosting an event on maritime governance. In this presentation it will be discussed to what extent Barents Sea and Pacific Arctic marine management embedded in the international system can be compared, and what research and policy lessons can be shared from this comparison. The event occurs on 22 August 2016 in Singapore; more information about the speakers and the venue can be found here.

The University of New England is hosting a round table entitled “Can We Move Beyond Disputes in the South China Sea?”. The event occurs on Monday 1 August 2016 at the CB Newling Campus of the University of New England in Armidale, Australia. More information on the panelists and the presentations can be found here.

The British Institute of International and Comparative Law is holding in London, the UK, an event entitled “Obligations of States in Undelimited Maritime Areas”. This event will analyse and discuss the obligations of States in regard to undelimited areas pending agreement on maritime boundary delimitation. In particular, the event will focus on the obligations of States under Articles 74(3) and 83(3) of UNCLOS to refrain from activities that could jeopardise or hamper the reaching of a final agreement on maritime delimitation. The event occurs on 22 July 2016 and is free to attend, but registration is required. Further information about the venue, the guest speakers and the registration is available here.

The Piraeus Bar Association is organizing the 9th edition of its International Conference of Maritime Law. This event is the sequel of a tradition established 24 years ago. It will be held in Piraeus from 13 to 15 October 2016 and will deal with Maritime Safety and Security (legal implications to ships, cargo and the human element). Young scholars and practitioners are also invited to participate to an essay competition, the “Young Maritime Prize”. More information about the conference can be found here. The terms to apply for the prize are here. Registration and venue information is to be found here.

Virginia University’s Center for Oceans Law and Policy (COLP) is organizing, in cooperation with the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea and the Office of Legal Affairs of the United Nations, a conference entitled Legal Order in the World’s Oceans: UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. This is already the 40th annual conference of the COLP and it will be hosted at the United Nations Headquarters, New York, on June 27–28, 2016. The program can be found here.

The sixth conference of the MSP stakeholder series, focussing on MSP Worldwide will be organised on 8 and 9 June 2016 by DG MARE in University of the Azores, Ponte Delgada, Azores. The conference will present experiences, opportunities and challenges of MSP implementation around the world. In particular it will look at MSP’s economic benefits, its potential as a climate adaptation tool as well as at the role of area-based management regimes in international waters. The main purpose is to take stock of what is being done at international level and identify potential synergies with EU MSP. More information can be found here.