Yeosu Academy of the Law of the Sea

Further updates will be provided at a later stage.

Clive Schofield is Professor at the Australian Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS), University of Wollongong (UOW) (Australia). He served as the inaugural Head of Research at the WMU-Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute, World Maritime University (WMU) in Malmö, Sweden. Of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), a Specialized Agency of the United Nations (2018-2023). He was previously Director of Research at ANCORS, and Leader of the “Sustaining Oceans and Coastal Communities” research theme within the UOW Global Challenges Program. He holds a Ph.D. (Geography) from the University of Durham (United Kingdom) and an LLM from the University of British Columbia (UBC) (Canada). Professor Schofield is a maritime geographer and international legal scholar whose research interests relate to the maritime jurisdictional aspects of the law of the sea, the determination of baselines along the coast in an era of sea-level rise, the delineation of the limits to maritime claims and maritime boundary delimitation. His current research focuses on the geo-legal and geo-technical aspects of maritime boundary and security issues. He has published over 200 written works, including 23 books and monographs (which include edited works) on these issues. Professor Schofield is a member of the International Law Association’s Committee on International Law and Sea-level Rise and serves as an International Hydrographic Office (IHO)-nominated Observer on the Advisory Board on the Law of the Sea (ABLOS). He has also been involved in the peaceful settlement of boundary and territory disputes, providing advice and research support to governments engaged in boundary negotiations and has been involved in international boundary dispute settlement cases before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Additionally, he served as an independent expert witness in the 2016 international arbitration case between the Philippines and China.

Donald R Rothwell is Professor of International Law at the ANU College of Law, Australian National University where he has taught since July 2006, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law (FAAL) since 2015. His research has a specific focus on law of the sea, polar law, and implementation of international law within Australia as reflected in 28 authored, co-authored and edited books, and over 200 articles, book chapters and notes in international and Australian publications. A 3rd edition of his leading work with Tim Stephens – The International Law of the Sea (Hart) - was published in 2023. Rothwell’s other recent books include Islands and International Law (Hart, 2022); Rothwell and Letts (eds), The Law of the Sea in South East Asia: Environmental, Navigational and Security Challenges (Routledge, 2020); and International Law: Cases and Materials with Australian Perspectives 3rd (CUP, 2018) with Kaye, Akhtar-Khavari, Davis and Saunders. Major career works include The Polar Regions and the Development of International Law (CUP, 1996), and Rothwell, Oude Elferink, Scott and Stephens (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the Law of the Sea (OUP, 2015). From 2012-2018 he was Rapporteur of the International Law Association (ILA) Committee on ‘Baselines under the International Law of the Sea’. Rothwell was previously Challis Professor of International Law and Director of the Sydney Centre for International and Global Law, University of Sydney (2004-2006), where he had taught since 1988. He has acted as a consultant or been a member of expert groups for UNEP, UNDP, IUCN, the Australian Government, and acted as advisor to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) in its campaign against Japanese Whaling in the Southern Ocean. He regularly commentates on international law issues, including for all of the major Australian media and has been interviewed for ABC TV and ABC Radio, the BBC, CNN, Channel News Asia, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Radio New Zealand. 

James Kraska is Chair and Charles H. Stockton Professor of International Maritime Law in the Stockton Center for International Law at the Naval War College, the oldest chair at the institution, and Visiting Professor of Law and John Harvey Gregory Lecturer on World Organization at Harvard Law School, where he teaches International Law of the Sea. He has served as Visiting Professor of Law at the College of Law, University of the Philippines, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Gujarat National Law University, Mary Derrickson McCurdy Visiting Scholar at Duke University Marine Laboratory, and Fellow in residence at the Marine Policy Center, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He has published numerous books and scholarly articles and is Editor-in-Chief of International Law Studies, the oldest journal of international law in the United States, and three volumes of the treatise, Benedict on Admiralty: International Maritime Law. He is also a Permanent Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Professor Kraska served as a U.S. Navy officer and lawyer, with multiple tours of duty in Japan and the Pentagon, including as Oceans Law & Policy Adviser and then Director of International Negotiations on the Joint Staff. 

Jin-Hyun Paik has been Judge of International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in Hamburg, Germany (2009-2023) and served as its President (2017-2020). He also served as President of the Special Chamber in Dispute concerning delimitation of the maritime boundary between Mauritius and Maldives in the Indian Ocean. He was Professor of international law at Seoul National University in Korea and Dean of its Graduate School of International Studies (GSIS). He is now Professor Emeritus and also Senior Adviser to the Center for International Law at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy. Judge Paik was Arbitrator in “Enrica Lexie Incident” case (Italy v. India). He currently serves as President of the Arbitral Tribunal in Dispute concerning Coastal State’s Rights in the Black Sea, Sea of Azov, and Kerch Strait (Ukraine v. the Russian Federation). Judge Paik is Member of the Institut de Droit International. He also served as President of the Asian Society of International Law (2015-2017). 

Director-General for International Legal Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea

Dr. Hwang joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea in 1998. His more than twenty-five-year career as a foreign service officer has included such assignments as providing legal advice for foreign policy and inter-Korean relations, negotiating on maritime delimitation with neighboring countries, working on the bilateral nuclear cooperation with the United States, and participating in multilateral law-making fora. His diplomatic postings were to Washington, D.C., the United States and Sana’a, Yemen. He served as Director and then Deputy Director-General for International Legal Affairs. In June of last year, he was appointed as Director-General for International Legal Affairs. He holds a Bachelor of Law from Seoul National University, followed by Master of Laws degrees from both Columbia University and New York University. He earned a Doctor of Juridical Science (JSD) from Seoul National University in 2022. He won the grand prize in the academic paper category of the 2022 Hong Jin-ki Legal Research Award for his doctoral dissertation, and received the Hae-oh Diplomat Award in 2017. 

Keun-Gwan Lee is a professor of law at the School of Law, Seoul National University. He received his LL.B. from Seoul National University, LL.M. from Georgetown University, and Ph.D. from Cambridge University. He has taught international law at the Korean Naval Academy, Konkuk University, Kyushu University and Seoul National University. He worked as director of studies at the Hague Academy of International Law in 2010 and gave a special lecture at the Academy in 2018. He has worked for UNESCO in the field of international protection of cultural objects since 2001, including the chairmanship of the Inter-Governmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property (2012-2014). He served as the President of the Korean Society of International Law (2021) and as a Vice-President of the Asian Society of international Law (2019-2021). He is due to serve as a member of the International Law Commission from 2023. His research interests include the history and theory of international law, state recognition and succession, the law of the sea, the international protection of cultural property, and the various international legal issues arising in East Asia. 

Tomas Heidar (Iceland) has been Judge of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) since October 2014 and currently serves as the President of the Tribunal from 2023. Earlier he was Vice-President of the Tribunal (2020-2023) and President of the ITLOS Chamber for Fisheries Disputes (2017-2020). He was a Member of the ITLOS Special Chamber in the Dispute concerning delimitation of the maritime boundary between Mauritius and Maldives in the Indian Ocean.
From 1996-2014, Tomas Heidar served as Legal Adviser of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Iceland, attaining the rank of Ambassador. As such he was responsible for all matters of public international law and represented Iceland regularly at meetings on ocean affairs and the law of the sea at the United Nations and in other international fora.
Judge Heidar is also Director of the Law of the Sea Institute of Iceland and Co-director and lecturer of the Rhodes Academy of Oceans Law and Policy. He lectures at the University of Iceland and many other universities and institutions around the world, including University College London, Queen Mary University of London, the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, the University of Oxford, the Yeosu Academy of the Law of the Sea and the IFLOS Summer Academy. He has taught law of the sea at the United Nations Regional Course in International Law in Ethiopia.
Judge Heidar has published numerous books and articles on ocean affairs and the law of the sea, most recently New Knowledge and Changing Circumstances in the Law of the Sea (ed., Brill Nijhoff, 2020). He is also Conciliator and Arbitrator under Annexes V and VII to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. 

Judge Rhee is a Judge of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. Prior to joining the Tribunal, Judge Rhee served in the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, holding key positions in charge of international law such as Director for International Legal Affairs, Chief of the legal team in the Korean Mission to the UN, and Director General for International Legal Affairs. In his capacity at these positions, he has dealt with various legal issues, including law of the sea affairs. He also headed the Korean delegation to numerous intergovernmental meetings and negotiations related to the law of the sea, most recently BBNJ negotiations. He also served as Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan from 2018 to 2020.

Academic Background

- LL.B. at College of Law, Seoul National University (1988)

- LL.M. in Environmental and Natural Resources Law, University of Utah, U.S. (1999)

- LL.M. Harvard Law School, U.S. (2000)

Professional Background

- Judge, International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (2023.10-present)

- Director-General for International Legal Affairs, Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) (2020-2023)

- Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (2018-2020)

- Chief of the Legal Team, Korean Permanent Mission to the United Nations, New York, U.S. (2015-2018)

- Director for International Legal Affairs, MOFA (2013-2015)

- Director for Policy Planning and Coordination, MOFA (2012-2013)

- Counsellor, Korean Embassy to the Kingdom of the Netherlands (2010-2012) 

Dr. Aleke Stöfen-O’Brien, LLM is an Assistant Professor (Research/Ocean Sustainability, Governance & Management) at the World Maritime University (WMU) in Malmö, Sweden. Her research interests include law of the sea, marine environmental protection and sustainable ocean governance. 

Prior to joining WMU, Dr. Stöfen-O’Brien served as Policy Officer in the Marine Unit of the Federal Environment Agency of the Federal Republic of Germany. Dr. Stöfen-O’Brien has extensive professional experience as an Associate Programme Officer at the Secretariat for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Montréal, Canada, as Research Associate at the University of Trier, at the Marine Unit of Directorate-General Environment (DG ENV) of the European Commission, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) as well as the WHO/Europe representation to the EU working on aspects such as marine environmental protection, marine litter, aquaculture, sub-seabed CO2 capture and storage, capacity-building and broader aspects of international and European law.  Dr. Stöfen-O´Brien has also been participating in the intergovernmental process towards the development of an international plastic treaty.

Dr.Stöfen-O´Brien\'s research work has seen her participate in numerous international scientific collaborations, including that of co-convening Chapter 12 on marine debris and dumping of the United Nations Second World Ocean Assessment, which was published in July 2021. She has also contributed to The Economist Plastics Management Index (in collaboration with the Nippon Foundation), which was published in October 2021 as well as The Economist Invisible Blue report on marine chemical pollution, which was published in collaboration with the Nippon Foundation in March 2022. Dr. Stöfen-O´Brien serves also as convenor of a working group of the International Standard Organization Technical Committee on Maritime Decarbonization. 

Aline Jaeckel is Associate Professor at the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS) at the University of Wollongong. Her research focuses on law of the sea and international environmental law with a particular focus on the regulation and governance of deep seabed mining. She has published widely, including The International Seabed Authority and the Precautionary Principle (Brill, 2017) and co-edited the Research Handbook on International Marine Environmental Law, 2nd ed (Edward Elgar, 2023). She acts as a government advisor during the ongoing negotiations at the International Seabed Authority, regularly conducts consultancies, and serves on the Editorial Board of Marine Policy. She is also a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Centre for Environmental Law at Macquarie University in Sydney and has held previous positions at the Research Institute for Sustainability – Helmholtz Centre in Potsdam, Germany, the Faculty of Law and Justice of the University of New South Wales, as well as Macquarie University Law School in Sydney.  

Clive Schofield is Professor at the Australian Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS), University of Wollongong (UOW) (Australia). He served as the inaugural Head of Research at the WMU-Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute, World Maritime University (WMU) in Malmö, Sweden. Of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), a Specialized Agency of the United Nations (2018-2023). He was previously Director of Research at ANCORS, and Leader of the “Sustaining Oceans and Coastal Communities” research theme within the UOW Global Challenges Program. He holds a Ph.D. (Geography) from the University of Durham (United Kingdom) and an LLM from the University of British Columbia (UBC) (Canada). Professor Schofield is a maritime geographer and international legal scholar whose research interests relate to the maritime jurisdictional aspects of the law of the sea, the determination of baselines along the coast in an era of sea-level rise, the delineation of the limits to maritime claims and maritime boundary delimitation. His current research focuses on the geo-legal and geo-technical aspects of maritime boundary and security issues. He has published over 200 written works, including 23 books and monographs (which include edited works) on these issues. Professor Schofield is a member of the International Law Association’s Committee on International Law and Sea-level Rise and serves as an International Hydrographic Office (IHO)-nominated Observer on the Advisory Board on the Law of the Sea (ABLOS). He has also been involved in the peaceful settlement of boundary and territory disputes, providing advice and research support to governments engaged in boundary negotiations and has been involved in international boundary dispute settlement cases before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Additionally, he served as an independent expert witness in the 2016 international arbitration case between the Philippines and China.

Coalter G. Lathrop directs Sovereign Geographic, an international law firm and cartography consultancy serving sovereign clients throughout the world. Over the last twenty-five years he has acted as counsel and advisor in multiple cases before the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, and ad hoc tribunals on questions of territorial sovereignty, maritime delimitation, transboundary harm and shared resources. Lathrop has provided negotiating support and advice on related matters to governments and private interests in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and North and South America.

Lathrop holds a degree in marine policy from the University of Washington and a J.D. and LL.M. in International and Comparative Law from Duke University. He presents and publishes on the law of the sea, the Arctic, island sovereignty, and maritime boundaries; teaches courses on Law of the Sea and International Environmental Law at Duke University; and has lectured at the Yeosu Academy, International Foundation for the Law of the Sea Summer Academy, and the International Boundaries Research Unit at Durham University. Lathrop served as the rapporteur of the International Law Association Baselines Committee, is the current chair of the Law of the Sea Committee of the American Branch of the International Law Association, and is in his thirteenth year as the editor of International Maritime Boundaries, a De Gruyter Brill publication and project of the American Society of International Law. 

Donald R Rothwell is Professor of International Law at the ANU College of Law, Australian National University where he has taught since July 2006, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law (FAAL) since 2015. His research has a specific focus on law of the sea, polar law, and implementation of international law within Australia as reflected in 28 authored, co-authored and edited books, and over 200 articles, book chapters and notes in international and Australian publications. A 3rd edition of his leading work with Tim Stephens – The International Law of the Sea (Hart) - was published in 2023. Rothwell’s other recent books include Islands and International Law (Hart, 2022); Rothwell and Letts (eds), The Law of the Sea in South East Asia: Environmental, Navigational and Security Challenges (Routledge, 2020); and International Law: Cases and Materials with Australian Perspectives 3rd (CUP, 2018) with Kaye, Akhtar-Khavari, Davis and Saunders. Major career works include The Polar Regions and the Development of International Law (CUP, 1996), and Rothwell, Oude Elferink, Scott and Stephens (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the Law of the Sea (OUP, 2015). From 2012-2018 he was Rapporteur of the International Law Association (ILA) Committee on ‘Baselines under the International Law of the Sea’. Rothwell was previously Challis Professor of International Law and Director of the Sydney Centre for International and Global Law, University of Sydney (2004-2006), where he had taught since 1988. He has acted as a consultant or been a member of expert groups for UNEP, UNDP, IUCN, the Australian Government, and acted as advisor to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) in its campaign against Japanese Whaling in the Southern Ocean. He regularly commentates on international law issues, including for all of the major Australian media and has been interviewed for ABC TV and ABC Radio, the BBC, CNN, Channel News Asia, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Radio New Zealand. 

James Kraska is Chair and Charles H. Stockton Professor of International Maritime Law in the Stockton Center for International Law at the Naval War College, the oldest chair at the institution, and Visiting Professor of Law and John Harvey Gregory Lecturer on World Organization at Harvard Law School, where he teaches International Law of the Sea. He has served as Visiting Professor of Law at the College of Law, University of the Philippines, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Gujarat National Law University, Mary Derrickson McCurdy Visiting Scholar at Duke University Marine Laboratory, and Fellow in residence at the Marine Policy Center, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He has published numerous books and scholarly articles and is Editor-in-Chief of International Law Studies, the oldest journal of international law in the United States, and three volumes of the treatise, Benedict on Admiralty: International Maritime Law. He is also a Permanent Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Professor Kraska served as a U.S. Navy officer and lawyer, with multiple tours of duty in Japan and the Pentagon, including as Oceans Law & Policy Adviser and then Director of International Negotiations on the Joint Staff. 

Jin-Hyun Paik has been Judge of International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in Hamburg, Germany (2009-2023) and served as its President (2017-2020). He also served as President of the Special Chamber in Dispute concerning delimitation of the maritime boundary between Mauritius and Maldives in the Indian Ocean. He was Professor of international law at Seoul National University in Korea and Dean of its Graduate School of International Studies (GSIS). He is now Professor Emeritus and also Senior Adviser to the Center for International Law at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy. Judge Paik was Arbitrator in “Enrica Lexie Incident” case (Italy v. India). He currently serves as President of the Arbitral Tribunal in Dispute concerning Coastal State’s Rights in the Black Sea, Sea of Azov, and Kerch Strait (Ukraine v. the Russian Federation). Judge Paik is Member of the Institut de Droit International. He also served as President of the Asian Society of International Law (2015-2017). 

Director-General for International Legal Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea

Dr. Hwang joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea in 1998. His more than twenty-five-year career as a foreign service officer has included such assignments as providing legal advice for foreign policy and inter-Korean relations, negotiating on maritime delimitation with neighboring countries, working on the bilateral nuclear cooperation with the United States, and participating in multilateral law-making fora. His diplomatic postings were to Washington, D.C., the United States and Sana’a, Yemen. He served as Director and then Deputy Director-General for International Legal Affairs. In June of last year, he was appointed as Director-General for International Legal Affairs. He holds a Bachelor of Law from Seoul National University, followed by Master of Laws degrees from both Columbia University and New York University. He earned a Doctor of Juridical Science (JSD) from Seoul National University in 2022. He won the grand prize in the academic paper category of the 2022 Hong Jin-ki Legal Research Award for his doctoral dissertation, and received the Hae-oh Diplomat Award in 2017. 

Keun-Gwan Lee is a professor of law at the School of Law, Seoul National University. He received his LL.B. from Seoul National University, LL.M. from Georgetown University, and Ph.D. from Cambridge University. He has taught international law at the Korean Naval Academy, Konkuk University, Kyushu University and Seoul National University. He worked as director of studies at the Hague Academy of International Law in 2010 and gave a special lecture at the Academy in 2018. He has worked for UNESCO in the field of international protection of cultural objects since 2001, including the chairmanship of the Inter-Governmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property (2012-2014). He served as the President of the Korean Society of International Law (2021) and as a Vice-President of the Asian Society of international Law (2019-2021). He is due to serve as a member of the International Law Commission from 2023. His research interests include the history and theory of international law, state recognition and succession, the law of the sea, the international protection of cultural property, and the various international legal issues arising in East Asia. 

Senior Partner at Squire Patton Boggs

Rodman Bundy is a member of the International Dispute Resolution Practice Group and has more than 35 years of experience as counsel and advocate in high-profile public international law litigations and international commercial and investment arbitrations, including appearances before the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal and various ad hoc, ICC and ICSID arbitral tribunals.

On the non-contentious side, Rodman has extensive experience advising international energy companies and national oil companies on upstream oil and gas matters, including production sharing and joint operating agreements, service agreements, domestic and international unitisation and the risks associated with petroleum operations carried out in disputed offshore areas. He also advises numerous governments on issues of international law.

Clients include governments, multinational energy companies, construction companies and state-owned entities.

Rodman lectured for many years on international boundary disputes at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, King’s College, London, and boundary workshops organised by the International Boundaries Research Unit. He is a frequent guest speaker at conferences and workshops on issues of public international law, upstream oil and gas operations and construction disputes, including at the National University of Singapore and the Centre of International Law. Rodman has written on issues of public international law and international dispute resolution, and delivered the Inaugural Lecture at the Public International Law session of The Hague Academy of International Law in 2019. 

Tomas Heidar (Iceland) has been Judge of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) since October 2014 and currently serves as the President of the Tribunal from 2023. Earlier he was Vice-President of the Tribunal (2020-2023) and President of the ITLOS Chamber for Fisheries Disputes (2017-2020). He was a Member of the ITLOS Special Chamber in the Dispute concerning delimitation of the maritime boundary between Mauritius and Maldives in the Indian Ocean.
From 1996-2014, Tomas Heidar served as Legal Adviser of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Iceland, attaining the rank of Ambassador. As such he was responsible for all matters of public international law and represented Iceland regularly at meetings on ocean affairs and the law of the sea at the United Nations and in other international fora.
Judge Heidar is also Director of the Law of the Sea Institute of Iceland and Co-director and lecturer of the Rhodes Academy of Oceans Law and Policy. He lectures at the University of Iceland and many other universities and institutions around the world, including University College London, Queen Mary University of London, the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, the University of Oxford, the Yeosu Academy of the Law of the Sea and the IFLOS Summer Academy. He has taught law of the sea at the United Nations Regional Course in International Law in Ethiopia.
Judge Heidar has published numerous books and articles on ocean affairs and the law of the sea, most recently New Knowledge and Changing Circumstances in the Law of the Sea (ed., Brill Nijhoff, 2020). He is also Conciliator and Arbitrator under Annexes V and VII to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. 

Judge Rhee is a Judge of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. Prior to joining the Tribunal, Judge Rhee served in the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, holding key positions in charge of international law such as Director for International Legal Affairs, Chief of the legal team in the Korean Mission to the UN, and Director General for International Legal Affairs. In his capacity at these positions, he has dealt with various legal issues, including law of the sea affairs. He also headed the Korean delegation to numerous intergovernmental meetings and negotiations related to the law of the sea, most recently BBNJ negotiations. He also served as Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan from 2018 to 2020.

Academic Background

- LL.B. at College of Law, Seoul National University (1988)

- LL.M. in Environmental and Natural Resources Law, University of Utah, U.S. (1999)

- LL.M. Harvard Law School, U.S. (2000)

Professional Background

- Judge, International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (2023.10-present)

- Director-General for International Legal Affairs, Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) (2020-2023)

- Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (2018-2020)

- Chief of the Legal Team, Korean Permanent Mission to the United Nations, New York, U.S. (2015-2018)

- Director for International Legal Affairs, MOFA (2013-2015)

- Director for Policy Planning and Coordination, MOFA (2012-2013)

- Counsellor, Korean Embassy to the Kingdom of the Netherlands (2010-2012) 

Bjørn Kunoy is professor of international law at the University of the Faroe Islands, where he teaches public international law and law of the sea. Bjørn has acted as Agent and counsel in Annex VII arbitral tribunal proceedings, the Dispute Settlement Mechanism of the World Trade Organization, and has also appeared before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. Bjørn advises sovereign clients on treaty-law, state responsibility, natural resources law and maritime delimitation matters. He has also experience as head of delegation in maritime delimitation negotiations, inter-State unitization negotiations in regard to transboundary hydrocarbon deposits, and before the Commission on the Limits of the Continental. Bjørn is the author of 40 peer reviewed papers several of which have been quoted in proceedings before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and also the International Court of Justice.

James Kraska is Chair and Charles H. Stockton Professor of International Maritime Law in the Stockton Center for International Law at the Naval War College, the oldest chair at the institution, and Visiting Professor of Law and John Harvey Gregory Lecturer on World Organization at Harvard Law School, where he teaches International Law of the Sea. He has served as Visiting Professor of Law at the College of Law, University of the Philippines, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Gujarat National Law University, Mary Derrickson McCurdy Visiting Scholar at Duke University Marine Laboratory, and Fellow in residence at the Marine Policy Center, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He has published numerous books and scholarly articles and is Editor-in-Chief of International Law Studies, the oldest journal of international law in the United States, and three volumes of the treatise, Benedict on Admiralty: International Maritime Law. He is also a Permanent Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Professor Kraska served as a U.S. Navy officer and lawyer, with multiple tours of duty in Japan and the Pentagon, including as Oceans Law & Policy Adviser and then Director of International Negotiations on the Joint Staff.  

PROFESSOR DONALD ROBERT ROTHWELL

Coalter G. Lathrop directs Sovereign Geographic, an international law firm and cartography consultancy serving sovereign clients throughout the world. Over the last twenty-five years he has acted as counsel and advisor in multiple cases before the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, and ad hoc tribunals on questions of territorial sovereignty, maritime delimitation, and transboundary harm and resources. Lathrop has provided negotiating support and advice on related issues to governments and private interests in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and North and South America. He holds a degree in marine policy from the University of Washington and a J.D. and LL.M. in International and Comparative Law from Duke University. Lathrop presents and publishes on the law of the sea, the Arctic, island sovereignty, and maritime boundaries; teaches courses on Law of the Sea and International Environmental Law at Duke University; and has lectured at the Yeosu Academy, International Foundation for the Law of the Sea Summer Academy, and the International Boundaries Research Unit at Durham University. Lathrop served as the rapporteur of the International Law Association Baselines Committee, is the current chair of the Law of the Sea Committee of the American Branch of the International Law Association, and is in his twelfth year as the editor of International Maritime Boundaries, a Brill publication and project of the American Society of International Law. 

Professor Clive Schofield is Head of Research at the WMU-Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute, World Maritime University (WMU) in MALMÖ, Sweden. He was previously Director of Research at the Australian Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS), University of Wollongong (UOW), Australia and remains a Visiting Professor with ANCORS. He holds a PhD (geography) from the University of Durham, UK and an LLM from the University of British Columbia, Canada. Clive developed his profile in these areas during an 11-year association with the International Boundaries Research Unit (IBRU) at the University of Durham, UK where he served as Director of Research. Clive joined the Centre for Maritime Policy (subsequently renamed ANCORS) at the Faculty of Law, University of Wollongong in 2004. He has held both an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship and QEII Senior Research Fellowship. Clive is a maritime geographer and international legal scholar whose research interests relate to maritime jurisdictional aspects of the law of the sea, the determination of baselines along the coast in an era of sea level rise, the delineation of the limits to maritime claims and maritime boundary delimitation. Clive’s current research focuses on geo-legal and geo-technical aspects of maritime boundary and security issues.He has published over 250 publications including 23 books and monographs (including edited works) on these issues. He is co-author (with Emeritus Professor Victor Prescott, University of Melbourne) of the book, The Maritime Political Boundaries of the World (2005).Clive is a member of the International Law Association’s Committee on International Law and Sea Level Rise and serves as an International Hydrographic Office (IHO)-nominated Observer on the Advisory Board on the Law of the Sea (ABLOS). He has also been directly involved in the peaceful settlement of boundary and territory disputes, providing advice and research support to governments engaged in boundary negotiations. He has also been involved in four boundary dispute settlement cases before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and has been appointed as a Peacebuilding Adviser on behalf of the United Nations and World Bank. Additionally, he recently served as an independent expert witness in the international arbitration case between the Philippines and China, providing an expert report and giving testimony in the Great Hall of the Peace Palace, The Hague, November 2015.  

Kentaro NISHIMOTO is Professor of International Law at the School of Law, Tohoku University and Arctic Environment Research Center, National Institute of Polar Research, Japan. His current research focuses on the international law of the sea, including issues such as the history of the law of the sea, sustainable development of ocean resources, and the settlement of maritime disputes. His recent publications include a co-edited book on marine biodiversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ) in Japanese (Shigeki Sakamoto, Kimio Yakushiji, Toshiya Ueki and Kentaro Nishimoto (eds.), New Developments in the Law of the Sea on Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (Yushindo, 2021)) and entries related to the practice of Japan in the field of the law of the sea in the Encyclopedia of Public International Law in Asia (Brill, 2021) and Encyclopedia of Ocean Law and Policy in Asia Pacific (Brill, 2022). He has advised the government of Japan in various capacities, including as an advisor to the Japanese delegation to the intergovernmental conference on BBNJ and as a member of the Advisory Board on the Extension of the Continental Shelf.

Lea Kolmos Weis is a Legal Officer (Regulatory Affairs) at the International Seabed Authority based in Kingston, Jamaica. Her work includes advising the organs of the International Seabed Authority in the preparation of the draft regulations on exploitation of mineral resources in the Area and the accompanying standards and guidelines as well as compliance and other regulatory matters in respect of UNCLOS, the 1994 Agreement and the regulations for prospecting and exploration.

Lea Kolmos Weis is an experienced attorney from Copenhagen. She is specialized in international arbitration, shipping and offshore matters. Lea Kolmos Weis has extensive experience with oil and gas disputes. Lea Kolmos Weis became a certified mediator in 2017 and has previously worked as a part-time lecturer in civil procedure at the University of Copenhagen.

Lea Kolmos Weis holds an LL.M from Copenhagen University and an LL.M from Queen Mary University of London.

Stuart Kaye is Director and Distinguished Professor of Law within the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security at the University of Wollongong.  He holds degrees in arts and law from the University of Sydney, winning the Law Graduates’ Association Medal, and a doctorate in law from Dalhousie University.

Stuart Kaye has an extensive research interest in the law of the sea and international law. He has written a number of books, including Australia\'s Maritime Boundaries (2001), The Torres Strait (1997), International Fisheries Management (2001), Freedom of Navigation in the Indo-Pacific Region (2008) and over 100 other books, articles and chapters. He was appointed to the International Hydrographic Organization\'s Panel of Experts on Maritime Boundary Delimitation in 1995 and in 2000 was appointed to the List of Arbitrators under the Environmental Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty. He was chair of the Australian International Humanitarian Law Committee from 2003 to 2009, for which he was awarded the Australian Red Cross Society Distinguished Service Medal. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 2007 and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law in 2011.

Mr. Vladimir Jares is the Director of the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Office of Legal Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat. He has dealt with many issues concerning the law of the sea, in particular those related to the implementation of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and related Agreements. Since 1997, he has been involved in providing services to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf and has served as its Secretary. He has also been involved in capacity-building activities of the Division, delivering many of its training courses, including on UNCLOS article 76 implementation. 

Keun-Gwan Lee is a professor of law at the School of Law, Seoul National University. He received his LL.B. from Seoul National University, LL.M. from Georgetown University, and Ph.D. from Cambridge University. He has taught international law at the Korean Naval Academy, Konkuk University, Kyushu University and Seoul National University. He worked as director of studies at the Hague Academy of International Law in 2010 and gave a special lecture at the Academy in 2018. He has worked for UNESCO in the field of international protection of cultural objects since 2001, including the chairmanship of the Inter-Governmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property (2012-2014). He served as the President of the Korean Society of International Law (2021) and as a Vice-President of the Asian Society of international Law (2019-2021). He is due to serve as a member of the International Law Commission from 2023. His research interests include the history and theory of international law, state recognition and succession, the law of the sea, the international protection of cultural property, and the various international legal issues arising in East Asia.  

Fred Soons studied law at Utrecht University, The Netherlands, followed by postgraduate studies in international law at the University of Washington (Seattle, USA) and Cambridge University (UK). He obtained a PhD-degree at Utrecht University with a thesis in the field of the international law of the sea in 1982.

After having served from 1976 as a civil servant in various legal and policy positions at the Netherlands Ministry of Transport, Water Management and Public Works, he became professor of public international law and director of the Netherlands Institute for the Law of the Sea (NILOS) at Utrecht University in 1987. He retired from these positions in 2014.

He was, inter alia, a deputy-judge at the Rotterdam District Court, member and chairman of the Advisory Committee on Public International Law of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a Founding Co-director of the Rhodes Academy of Oceans Law and Policy, President of the Royal Netherlands Society of International Law, Director of Studies of the International Law Association, chairman of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Netherlands Defense Academy, member of the Advisory Body of Experts on the Law of the Sea of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC/ABE-LOS), and Adjunct Professor of International Law at the University of Curaçao. He is a member of the Institut de Droit International.

As counsel and arbitrator he has been involved in international litigation at the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and arbitral tribunals.  

Professor Clive Schofield is Head of Research at the WMU-Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute, World Maritime University (WMU) in MALMÖ, Sweden. He was previously Director of Research at the Australian Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS), University of Wollongong (UOW), Australia and remains a Visiting Professor with ANCORS. He holds a PhD (geography) from the University of Durham, UK and an LLM from the University of British Columbia, Canada. Clive developed his profile in these areas during an 11-year association with the International Boundaries Research Unit (IBRU) at the University of Durham, UK where he served as Director of Research. Clive joined the Centre for Maritime Policy (subsequently renamed ANCORS) at the Faculty of Law, University of Wollongong in 2004. He has held both an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship and QEII Senior Research Fellowship. Clive is a maritime geographer and international legal scholar whose research interests relate to maritime jurisdictional aspects of the law of the sea, the determination of baselines along the coast in an era of sea level rise, the delineation of the limits to maritime claims and maritime boundary delimitation. Clive’s current research focuses on geo-legal and geo-technical aspects of maritime boundary and security issues.He has published over 250 publications including 23 books and monographs (including edited works) on these issues. He is co-author (with Emeritus Professor Victor Prescott, University of Melbourne) of the book, The Maritime Political Boundaries of the World (2005).Clive is a member of the International Law Association’s Committee on International Law and Sea Level Rise and serves as an International Hydrographic Office (IHO)-nominated Observer on the Advisory Board on the Law of the Sea (ABLOS). He has also been directly involved in the peaceful settlement of boundary and territory disputes, providing advice and research support to governments engaged in boundary negotiations. He has also been involved in four boundary dispute settlement cases before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and has been appointed as a Peacebuilding Adviser on behalf of the United Nations and World Bank. Additionally, he recently served as an independent expert witness in the international arbitration case between the Philippines and China, providing an expert report and giving testimony in the Great Hall of the Peace Palace, The Hague, November 2015.

PROFESSOR DONALD ROBERT ROTHWELL

James Kraska is Chair and Charles H. Stockton Professor of International Maritime Law in the Stockton Center for International Law at the Naval War College, the oldest chair at the institution, and Visiting Professor of Law and John Harvey Gregory Lecturer on World Organization at Harvard Law School, where he teaches International Law of the Sea. He has served as Visiting Professor of Law at the College of Law, University of the Philippines, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Gujarat National Law University, Mary Derrickson McCurdy Visiting Scholar at Duke University Marine Laboratory, and Fellow in residence at the Marine Policy Center, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He has published numerous books and scholarly articles and is Editor-in-Chief of International Law Studies, the oldest journal of international law in the United States, and three volumes of the treatise, Benedict on Admiralty: International Maritime Law. He is also a Permanent Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Professor Kraska served as a U.S. Navy officer and lawyer, with multiple tours of duty in Japan and the Pentagon, including as Oceans Law & Policy Adviser and then Director of International Negotiations on the Joint Staff.

Larry Mayer is a Professor and the Director of the School of Marine Science and Ocean Engineering at the University of New Hampshire. He received a Ph.D. from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in Marine Geophysics in 1979 and was selected as an astronaut candidate finalist for NASA\'s first class of mission specialists. Larry has participated in more than 95 cruises (over 75 months at sea!) and has been chief or co-chief scientist of numerous expeditions including two legs of the Ocean Drilling Program and eight mapping expeditions in the ice covered regions of the high Arctic. He is the recipient of the Keen Medal for Marine Geology and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Stockholm. He was a member of the President’s Panel on Ocean Exploration and chaired a National Academy of Science Committee on the impact of the Deepwater Horizon Spill on ecosystem services in the Gulf of Mexico. He is currently the Chair of the National Academies of Science’s Oceans Studies Board, a member of the State Dept.’s Extended Continental Shelf Task Force and in 2016 was appointed by President Obama to the Arctic Research Commission. Larry\'s current research deals with sonar imaging and remote characterization of the seafloor as well as advanced applications of 3-D visualization to ocean mapping problems and applications of mapping to Law of the Sea issues, particularly in the Arctic.

Lea Kolmos Weis is a Legal Officer (Regulatory Affairs) at the International Seabed Authority based in Kingston, Jamaica. Her work includes advising the organs of the International Seabed Authority in the preparation of the draft regulations on exploitation of mineral resources in the Area and the accompanying standards and guidelines as well as compliance and other regulatory matters in respect of UNCLOS, the 1994 Agreement and the regulations for prospecting and exploration.

Lea Kolmos Weis is an experienced attorney from Copenhagen. She is specialized in international arbitration, shipping and offshore matters. Lea Kolmos Weis has extensive experience with oil and gas disputes. Lea Kolmos Weis became a certified mediator in 2017 and has previously worked as a part-time lecturer in civil procedure at the University of Copenhagen.

Lea Kolmos Weis holds an LL.M from Copenhagen University and an LL.M from Queen Mary University of London.

Nilüfer Oral is Director of the Centre of International Law at the National University of Singapore, a member of the UN International Law Commission and Co-chair of the Study Group on Sea-level rise in relation to international law. She was an advisor to the Turkish Foreign Ministry and a climate change negotiator for the Ministry (2009 – 2016).  She has appeared before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.  Nilufer Oral is a Distinguished Fellow of the Law of the Sea Institute at Berkeley Law and Senior Fellow of the National University of Singapore Law School. She is also a member of the Committee of Legal Experts of the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law, and a member of the Steering Committee of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law. She has published numerous articles edited several books, and has spoken at many international conferences. 

Stuart Kaye is Director and Distinguished Professor of Law within the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security at the University of Wollongong.  He holds degrees in arts and law from the University of Sydney, winning the Law Graduates’ Association Medal, and a doctorate in law from Dalhousie University.

Stuart Kaye has an extensive research interest in the law of the sea and international law. He has written a number of books, including Australia\'s Maritime Boundaries (2001), The Torres Strait (1997), International Fisheries Management (2001), Freedom of Navigation in the Indo-Pacific Region (2008) and over 100 other books, articles and chapters. He was appointed to the International Hydrographic Organization\'s Panel of Experts on Maritime Boundary Delimitation in 1995 and in 2000 was appointed to the List of Arbitrators under the Environmental Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty. He was chair of the Australian International Humanitarian Law Committee from 2003 to 2009, for which he was awarded the Australian Red Cross Society Distinguished Service Medal. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 2007 and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law in 2011.