Lecturers

Yeosu Academy of the Law of the Sea


 
Aleke Stöfen-O’Brien

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

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

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 Lathrop

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 Rothwell

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

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

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). 


 
Jun-shik Hwang

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

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. 


 
Rodman Bundy

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

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. 


 
Zha Hyoung Rhee

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)