Category Archives: Calls

The Marine & Environmental Law Program (MELP) and Marine & Environmental Law Institute (MELAW) of Dalhousie University will host a conference, entitled, Marine and Environmental Law: Retrospect and Prospects, 20-21 May 2025, in a hybrid format (Halifax, Canada/Online). A call for engaged listeners has been issued, with a deadline for registration of 16 May 2025. For further information see here.

The Ocean Governance, Research and Development Project (University of Ghana) will host its second international ocean governance conference, themed, Emerging Issues in Marine Environment and the Law of the Sea, 2-4 September 2025. Abstracts are welcome until 10 June 2025.

The ESIL Interest Group on International Courts and Tribunals will host a workshop, entitled, Reconstructing the Advisory Function of International Courts and Tribunals?, 11 September 2025, in-person (Berlin), prior to the ESIL 2025 Annual Meeting. Abstracts are welcome until 28 March 2025. For more information see here.

The NATO Maritime Security Centre of Excellence (MARSEC COE) will host its 5th Maritime Security Conference, themed, The Impact of Technology on Maritime Security, 24-25 June 2025, at MARSEC COE (Istanbul, Türkiye). Abstracts are welcome until 11 April 2025. For more information see here.

The World Maritime University (WMU) will host an international conference, themed, Advancing the Blue Economy through Gender Equality, 19-21 May 2025, at WMU (Malmö, Sweden). Abstracts are welcome until 15 February 2025. For more information see here.

The Diplomatic Academy of Viet Nam will host the 10th Biennial Conference of the Asian Society of International Law (AsianSIL), themed, Strengthening the Role of International Law in Asia, 9-10 October 2025, in Ha Noi (Viet Nam). Non-exhaustive suggested topics include the 2023 BBNJ Agreement; The contribution of ITLOS to the development of international law; and Safety and freedom of navigation at sea: implications for Asia-Pacific region. Abstracts are welcome until 15 March 2025. For more information see here.

On the occasion of the 2025 ESIL Research Forum, the ESIL Interest Group on the Law of the Sea will convene a workshop, entitled, Permacrisis at sea: navigating oceans dualities, 18 March 2025, online. Abstracts are welcome until 16 February 2025. For more information see here.

The School of Oriental and African Studies University of London is calling for papers to a workshop entitled Freedom of the seas and freedom of the individual: a historical appraisal. This call for papers invites young scholars to explore various aspects of the relationship between freedom of the seas and individual freedom in a historical perspective, focusing on the XV-XIX centuries. Papers may focus on a specific jurist, geographic area, school of thought, historical period, or may address more transversal aspects across the identified timeframe and regions, and may do so from a variety of approaches. The workshop takes place 7 February 2025. Deadline for submission of abstracts is 20 November 2024. Further information is available here.

The South African Research Chair in the Law of the Sea and Development in Africa will host a conference entitled Rounding the Cape ‒ Storms or Good Hope for the Law at Sea?, to be held in Cape Town (South Africa), on 28-30 April 2025. The themes of the conference are as follows: (a) Resource-related tensions, (b) Safety, security and AI-related tensions, (c) Human rights-related jurisdictional challenges and (d) The future of the law of the sea and maritime law in Africa. Abstracts and expressions of interest for discussants are welcome until 15 November 2024. Registration for participation online or at the venue is available here. The text of the call may be found here.

The Villa College Faculty of Sharia and Law will host a conference, entitled, Waves of Change: Nurturing Ocean Resilience and Chartering Sustainable Futures, 10 December 2024, in a hybrid format, Online/Villa College (Malé, Republic of Maldives). Abstracts are welcome until 31 October 2024.

Essex Law School will host a seminar funded by the Modern Law Review, Multilateralism and the making of international law: Marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, 4 December 2024, at University of Essex (UK). Abstracts are welcome until 13 October 2024.  

The Centre for International Law (NUS) and the Center for Climate Change Law and Governance (UCPH) are seeking abstracts for a conference, entitled, Decarbonization of Shipping and Alternative Fuels, 12-13 February 2025 in Singapore. Abstracts are welcome until 1 November 2024.

The Brazilian Institute for the Law of the Sea (BILOS) announced a call for submission of papers to be presented at the VIII Congress of the Brazilian Institute for the Law of the Sea. The theme of the event is Law of the Sea: New Actors, Conflicts, and Technologies. This event is to be held in Brasília on November 25-26, 2024. For those preferring to present the draft via videoconference, an extra session of the event will be held on 29 November 2024. Drafts must be submitted by 1 October 2024. Further information available here.

The Norwegian Centre for the Law of the Sea (NCLOS) will host the NCLOS Annual Conference 2024, themed, Future Trajectories for the Law of the Sea, 5-7 November 2024 in Tromsø, Norway. Abstracts are welcome until 30 June 2024. For more information see here.

On occasion of the 2024 ESIL Annual Conference (5-6 September 2024), the ESIL Interest Group on the Law of the Sea will convene a workshop, entitled, New Maritime Technologies: Challenges and Opportunities, 4 September 2024 (Vilnius, Lithuania). Abstracts are welcome until 20 May 2024. For more information see the call.

The NATO Maritime Security Centre of Excellence (MARSEC COE) will host its 4^th Maritime Security Conference, themed, Protection of Maritime Critical Infrastructure and Seabed, 27–28 June 2024, at MARSEC COE (Istanbul, Türkiye). Abstracts are welcome until 12 April 2024. For more information see here.

The Bremen Society for Natural Sciences will host the International Conference for Young Marine Researchers 2024 (ICYMARE 2024), 16-20 September 2024, hosted alongside the Bremen Maritime Week. Presentation abstracts are welcome until 15 of April 2024, including from a law of the sea perspective in several sessions. The call for abstracts targets Bachelor, Master, and PhD candidates.

The ILA Hellenic Branch will host the 81st Biennial ILA Conference, themed, International Law in a fluid world, 25-28 June 2024 in Athens (Greece). A number of panels and committee presentations are relevant to the law of the sea. There is also a call for abstracts open on 4 angles of the conference, welcoming submissions until 15 April 2024.

The 17th Polar Law Symposium, with two themes, Implementation of international minority- and indigenous law at national levels and Governance, resources, security, and jurisdictional issues in the circumpolar area, will be held 23-25 September 2024 at Mid Sweden University (Östersund, Sweden). Abstracts are welcome until 20 April 2024. For more information see here.

Deadline for submission of Paper/Panel/Roundtable is 13 March 2024 with the European International Studies Association (EISA) for the 17th Pan-European Conference (PEC) on International Relations that will take place 27-31 August 2024 at the Lille Catholic university in France. One of the standing sections of this year’s event is on Blue Turn – The Politics of Oceans and Polar Regions. See here for further information.

The Valentia Transatlantic Cable Foundation will host the Valentia Island Symposium, themed, Subsea Cable Security and Resilience: Past, Present and Future, 10-12 October 2024 (Valentia Island, Ireland). Abstracts are welcome by 30 April 2024. For more information see here.

The Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies (Leiden University) will host a conference, entitled, H2OLAW – Law-Science Interfaces within the Law of the Sea and Fresh Water Law, 26-27 September 2024, at Leiden University (The Netherlands). Abstracts are welcome until 31 March 2024. For more information and submissions see here.

The Société Française pour le Droit de l’Environnement, together with the Centre Jean Bodin and the Centre de Recherche Versailles Saint-Quentin Institutions Publiques, are hosting an academic event to discuss the legal approach to the management of sea waves as a resource (Les vagues : réflexions juridiques sur la gestion d’une «ressource » singulière). The event shall take place on 14 June 2024 at Sables d’Olonne (France). Deadline for submission of one-pager proposals (in French or in English) is 31 March 2024. Further details here.

The Judicial Jurisdiction Project of the Netherlands Institute for the Law of the Sea (NILOS) and the Utrecht University Centre for Water, Oceans and Sustainability Law (UCWOSL) – both part of the School of Law at Utrecht University – is inviting the submission of abstracts for a conference on: A multi-disciplinary take on the role of the judiciary in the law of the sea. The event will be convened in Utrecht (the Netherlands) on 21 and 22 November 2024. The objective is to dissect the judicial jurisdiction of tribunals under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. By capturing the current state of affairs and potential trends in this respect it is intended to further the discussion on the future role of dispute settlement under the Convention and its impact on the Convention as a whole. Abstracts should be submitted by 29 February 2024. Further details on the event here; the call may be read here.

The Center for Climate Change Law and Governance (CLIMA) at the Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen (Denmark) welcomes proposals for paper presentations for the conference ‘International law-making: Actors in shipping and climate change’, which will take place on 27-28 May 2024. The conference aims to explore current developments in the regulation of shipping related climate impacts, including the law-making processes at the international level, the role of actors and the implementation and enforcement of regulatory outcomes. This conference marks the final milestone of the research project InterAct, funded by the Carlsberg Foundation. Proposals should be submitted by 15 March 2024. More details here.

The University of Kent will host a workshop, entitled, Genocide and the Ocean: Conceptualising their Relationship, 20 March 2024 at the University of Kent (Canterbury, UK). Abstracts are welcome until 15 December 2023. For more information see the call for abstracts.

The Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies (Universiteit Leiden) welcomes abstracts for a workshop, entitled, Common Interests and Common Spaces: Institutional Approaches to Dispute Settlement, to be held 13 December 2023 in the Hague (Netherlands). Abstracts are welcome until 28 September 2023. For more information see here.

The Faculty of Shariah and Law (Villa College, Maldives) will host a symposium, entitled, International Law and Maldives: Navigating Geopolitics, Trade and Sovereignty, 20-21 December 2023 in Malé, Maldives. Abstracts are welcome until 30 September 2023 and a number of law of the sea topics are non-exhaustively detailed in the call for papers.

The Law Group of Wageningen University will host the fourth edition of the annual conference, themed, Living Environmental Law, 27-28 March 2024 at Wageningen University and Research (Netherlands). Paper abstracts are welcome until 15 September 2023. For more information see the call for papers.

The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO)’s Advisory Board on the Law of the Sea (ABLOS) is hosting its 11th conference in Monaco on 11-12 October 2023 (with an ice-breaker event on the evening of 10 October 2023). The meeting’s theme is Ocean Geosciences: From the Past Century to the Future Decade. Topics of interest will include both legal and technical aspect of the international law of the sea including concerning the definition of baselines along the coast, the delineation of the outer limits to zones of maritime jurisdiction including outer continental shelf limits seawards of 200 nautical miles from baselines along the coast, overlapping claims and maritime boundary disputes as well as recent efforts in maritime boundary dispute resolution.

Deadline to submit abstracts is 15 September 2023. The organizers welcome papers devoted to climate change impacts on oceans and coasts, including global sea level rise, and the implications of emerging technologies on law of the sea issues; other proposed papers engaging with contemporary developments at the interface of legal and technical considerations in the international law of the sea are also welcome. More information is available at the event’s webpage.

The School of International Law, China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL) in Beijing, China and the Faculty of Law, Cave Hill Campus, The University of West Indies (UWI) in Bridgetown, Barbados are proposing to co-host an international symposium on new developments of international law of the sea on 25 November 2023 in Beijing, China.

Abstracts (of 500 words maximum) may be sent to lawofseacupl@163.com no later than 1 September 2023 and should be accompanied by a short CV. Successful applicants will be notified of the result no later than 7 September 2023. Full papers need to be submitted to the foregoing email address no later than 7 November 2023. A limited number of successful applicants will be financially supported to speak in the symposium.

The Department of Law of the University of Cyprus will host the 2024 ESIL Research Forum, themed, Revisiting Interactions between Legal Orders, 18-19 April 2024, at the University of Cyprus (Nicosia, Cyprus). Abstracts are welcome until 30 September 2023. For more information see the call for papers.

The Climate Arctic Governance research network (CArGo) will host a special Arctic edition of the Interdisciplinary Seminar Series on Climate, Energy and Sustainability, 8 December 2023, in a hybrid format, University of Copenhagen (Denmark) and Zoom. Abstracts from students and junior researchers are welcome until 31 October 2023. For more information see here.

The Brazilian Institute of Law of the Sea (BILOS) shall host its VII Congress of the Brazilian Institute of Law of the Sea, 30-31 October 2023, at the Escola de Guerra Naval, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). The submission of papers are welcome until 6 August 2023. For further information see here.

The University of Coimbra (Portugal) is hosting the final symposium of the project MediMARE: Mediation in Maritime Disputes. The organizers welcome interdisciplinary and international approaches such as: legal analysis of maritime mediation and its implications; social and political analysis of the mediation mechanism related to maritime activities; diagnosis on current situation and building innovative solutions at the legal and social policies levels; relevance and/or experience of maritime mediation in particular fields, such as (but not limited to) insurance, labor relations, contractual relations, environmental disputes. The symposium will be conducted in a hybrid format on 30 June and 1 July 2023 at the University of Coimbra (Portugal). Deadline to submit paper proposals is 2 June 2023. The call can be found here.

The Norwegian Centre for the Law of the Sea (NCLOS), UiT The Arctic University of Norway, will host its annual conference, themed, Ocean Commons, 1-3 November 2023, in Tromsø (Norway). Abstracts are welcome until 30 June 2023. For more information see here.