Yeosu Academy of the Law of the Sea
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.
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.
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 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.
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.