Yeosu Academy of the Law of the Sea
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.
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.
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.