Call for Papers
International Workshop “Developing Robust and Sustainable Ocean Regimes for Uncertain Futures”
Yong Pung How School of Law, Singapore Management University 28 April 2023, Singapore
In his 2022 Ho Rih Hwa Leadership Lecture at Singapore Management University, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Senior Minister of Singapore, eloquently described a world that has entered a “long perfect storm”. Minister Shanmugaratnam highlights foreboding clouds of rising inflation and economic recession, food and energy crises, climate change, mass extinction, pandemics, geopolitical tensions. All of this foreshadows a new reality. The future can no longer be proofed. Rather, the international community is facing very uncertain global futures.
Our choices today impact the possible futures we may face. Therefore, it is crucial that contemporary international law is made with desirable futures in mind. When it comes to oceans, while international community celebrates the 40th Anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, we are at a critical period of developing global ocean regimes: the United Nations Conference on Marine Biodiversity in Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement), the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and International Seabed Authority’s Mining Code are all being negotiated simultaneously.
The key research question of this workshop is centred on exploring of how global legal regimes should be developed to achieve a peaceful, healthy and sustainable ocean in uncertain futures. The workshop will address two categories of future scenarios. First, the ‘known unknowns’, such as pandemics, technological advancements at sea, mass extinction of marine species and the rise of China and its impact on the world’s oceans. Second, the so-called ‘unknown unknowns’ and the different ways to develop a resilient law of the sea that anticipates unexpected risks or situations. Examples could include future methods and imaginative techniques.
This hybrid workshop is co-organised by Singapore Management University, Centre for Commercial Law in Asia, with kind support of Baker McKenzie Wong & Leow, Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange and American Society of International Law.
Call for abstracts
Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be emailed to Associate Professor Nengye LIU (nengyeliu@smu.edu.sg) by 15 January 2023. Selected speakers will be notified by 15 February 2023. Speakers are required to submit a working paper by 21 April 2023. It is anticipated that an edited book from the Workshop will be published by a prominent publisher.
Practicalities
The Workshop will be held at SMU’s state of the art Kwa Geok Choo Law Library as a hybrid event (in person + zoom). It is free of charge, though speakers and participants will cover their own travel and accommodation expenses.