Law of the Sea

[Mr Mark Douglas is a Maritime Domain Analyst at Starboard Maritime Intelligence. He qualified as a Marine Engineer Officer while in the Royal New Zealand Navy. He later concurrently served as New Zealand Assistant Defence Advisor to Singapore and the New Zealand International Liaison Officer to the Singapore Information Fusion Centre. Dr Trung Nguyen is a Research Fellow at the Centre...

[Jessica Dorsey is an Assistant Professor of International Law at Utrecht University School of Law, an Executive Board Member of Airwars, and the Managing Editor of Opinio Juris.] In a New York Times essay published last week, Jeh Johnson, General Counsel of the Department of Defense in President Barack Obama’s first term and Director of Homeland Security in his second, seeks...

[Konstantinos Deligiannis-Virvos is a PhD Research Fellow with the Norwegian Centre for the Law of the Sea (NCLOS) at the Law Faculty of The Arctic University of Norway (UiT)] On 9 June 2025, the UK-flagged ship Madleen (officially the Barcarole), operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, was intercepted by Israeli forces on the high seas, approximately 100nm from Gaza. Twelve activists onboard were arrested,...

[The Legal Opinion Expert Group: Ademuni Odeke is a professor of international maritime law and policy and special advisor to the National Centre for the Sea and Maritime Law, at the Department of Maritime Law, University of Ankara (Türkiye). Alice Ollino is an assistant professor in international law and ricercatore at the University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy). Andrea Caligiuri is an associate professor of...

[Sindhura Polepalli is a Maritime Legal Consultant to the Directorate General of Shipping (Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Government of India)] This post is written in the author's personal capacity. On May 21, 2024 the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) confirmed in its Advisory Opinion (AO) that climate change poses an existential threat (ITLOS AO, para 66)....

[Luciana Maulida holds an LLM (Environmental Law) from Melbourne Law School and is an incoming PhD student at King's College London, focusing on the intersection of international law and climate change] The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS or the Tribunal) issued a landmark unanimous Advisory Opinion (the Opinion) on climate change, on 21 May 2024. The Opinion addressed states' obligations under...

[Eduardo Cavalcanti de Mello Filho is a Research Associate (Ocean Law and Policy) at the Centre for International Law, National University of Singapore] The Context Between 22 November and 4 December 2023, Greenpeace launched high seas protests against the Danish-flagged MV Coco, involved in deep seabed exploration and operated by Nauru Ocean Resources Inc (NORI). Sponsored by Nauru, NORI was exercising its...

[Dobrin Dobrev is a recent graduate from Utrecht University’s master’s program in International Law from the Conflict and Security track] Introduction Commercial shipping in the Black Sea has encountered restrictions ever since the full-scale invasion by Russia towards Ukraine began. One of the issues revolves around the rising number of sea-mines in the Black Sea, which are negatively impacting not only the belligerents...

[Dobrin Dobrev is a recent graduate from Utrecht University's master's program in International Law from the Conflict and Security track.] 1. Introduction On the 24th of February 2022, the Russian Federation launched a full-scale invasion against Ukraine, marking the beginning of the biggest European conflict in the 21st century. Since the invasion began, the Black Sea has received significant attention due to its...

[Mariana Gkliati is an Assistant Professor at Tilburg University. Danai Angeli is an Assistant Professor at Biklent University. Elizabeth Mavropoulou is a Lecturer at the University of Westminster. Niovi Vavoula is an Associate Professor at the Queen Mary University of London.] This blogpost was released on 11 July as an open letter to Greek and EU authorities, undersigned by 350 academics...

[Ms Frances Anggadi (Twitter: @francesanggadi) is a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney Law School, co-chair of the Oceans and International Environmental Law Interest Group of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law, and researcher at the University of Sydney Marine Studies Institute.  Frances’ research interests include maritime zones and sea-level rise and the importance of State...

[Ríán Derrig is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the WMU-Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute of the World Maritime University.Arnulf Becker Lorca is Research Professor at Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso and Visiting Researcher at Harvard Law School.] This two-part post is the text of a memorandum prepared for delegates in advance of the resumption of the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Conference on an...