Category Archives for "Commentators"

Mariamalia Rodríguez Chaves

Postdoctoral Fellow
WMU-Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute

Dr. Rodríguez Chaves has more than fifteen years of experience working with environmental non-governmental organizations and as an independent consultant on diverse environmental topics. She has a Law Degree, and a Masters Degree in Environmental Law, from the University of Costa Rica; and a PhD in Law from the School of Law of the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG). Currently, Mariamalia is a Post-Doctoral Fellow researcher in the Empowering Women for the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development programme at the WMU-Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute; a consultant for the High Seas Alliance, where she is responsible for coordinating the approach of Latin American countries in negotiating a new treaty on biodiversity beyond national negotiations at the United Nations; and she is the programme coordinator of the DOALOS/Norway programmes of assistance to meet the strategic capacity needs of developing states in the field of ocean governance and the law of the sea.

Sebastian Unger

Ocean Commissioner of the German Federal Government and Director for Marine Environmental Protection at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV)

Sebastian Unger is the Ocean Commissioner of the German Federal Government and Director for Marine Environmental Protection at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV). Previously, from 2011-2022, he led the research group on ocean governance at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS), Potsdam. In this role he initiated numerous international research initiatives, lectured on ocean governance, and advised governments and international organisations on key marine policy processes for achieving ocean health.

In 2007 he was appointed to be Deputy Secretary to the OSPAR Commission for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North‐East Atlantic. In that role he supported negotiations of new international legislation for marine conservation and environmental impacts of human activities, including the development of the world’s first network of marine protected areas on the “High Seas”.

From 2004-2007 Sebastian Unger served at the German Federal Foreign Office, where he coordinated the Ministry’s work on international maritime affairs. He has an academic background in biology with political science.

Aykut I. Ölcer

Director of Maritime Research and Professor
World Maritime University

Professor Dr. Aykut I. ÖLÇER is a naval architect and marine engineer holding the Nippon Foundation Professorial Chair in “Marine Technology and Innovation” at the World Maritime University (WMU). He is currently the Director of Research of WMU as well as the Head of Maritime Energy Management Specialization (MSc program). He served as the Editor-in-Chief of WMU Journal of Maritime Affairs (JOMA) and Book Series between February’17 and February’19. Prior to joining WMU, he worked at Newcastle University (England), University of Strathclyde (Scotland) and Istanbul Technical University (Türkiye) within the fields of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. He played an important role in Newcastle University’s first international branch in Singapore to help the University achieve its objectives in teaching/learning and research activities in the UG and PG programs of Marine Technology.

For many years, he has conducted research independently/jointly and collaborated with other researchers, academics and students all over the world, in particular from Europe and Asia. Dr Ölçer was involved in numerous EU funded FP5, FP6, FP7, Horizon 2020 and EU Horizon projects and IMO projects as well as IAMU and regional projects in Scandinavia. He currently leads the research priority areas, namely ‘Maritime Energy Management” and “Marine Technology and Innovation”, at WMU. He has published results of his research in leading, internationally peer-reviewed journals such as “Journal of Cleaner Production”, “Fuel Processing Technology”, “European Journal of Operational Research”, “Computers and Operational Research”, “Applied Soft Computing”, “Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment” and so on. He is the main Editor of the book “Trends and Challenges in Maritime Energy Management ”, which was one of the most downloaded Springer books in 2018. He delivered keynote speeches all over the world, in particular in the discipline of maritime decarbonisation.

Thomas Klenum

Executive Vice President
The Liberian Registry

Thomas Klenum (FRINA, C.Eng, Eur.Ing) is Executive Vice President for the Liberian Registry with a career spanning 30 years as Naval Architect and Principal Surveyor to Managing Director with extensive technical, managerial and leadership experience gained through long term international assignments to China, United Kingdom, Luxembourg, the United States and Germany in addition to extensive experience from the Nordic area based in Denmark.

Graduated in 1993 with a B.Sc. in Naval Architecture and after a short period at A.P.Moller-Maersk’s shipyard (Odense Steel Shipyard) in Denmark worked for over 20 years for Lloyd’s Register prior to taking up position as Managing Director for SeaNet Maritime Services & Technical Director for Liberian Registry (both part of the YCF Maritime Group) in 2014. Appointed as Senior Vice President for Maritime Operations from January 2020 and from January 2022 as Executive Vice President for Innovation and Regulatory Affairs with the Liberian Registry.

Rosemary Rayfuse

Emeritus Scientia Professor of Law
UNSW Sydney

Professor Rosemary Rayfuse is Emerita Scientia Professor in International Law in the Faculty of Law and Justice at UNSW Sydney, Australia, where she developed and led the public international law program from 1994 to 2020. She is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (FASSA), and has held visiting and conjoint appointments at universities around the world, including both Lund University and the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

Professor Rayfuse researches in the area of Public International Law in general and more specifically in the Law of the Sea and International Environmental Law and has published widely on issues of ocean governance, protection of the marine environment in areas beyond national jurisdiction, and the normative effects of climate change on international law. She has particular expertise in high seas fisheries, climate change and the ocean, and polar oceans governance. In addition to providing advice to governmental and non-governmental bodies, Professor Rayfuse is a member of the Joint Group of Experts of the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP), the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law and the International Law Association Committee on International Law and Sea Level Rise.

Yoshitaka Ota

Professor of Practice, School of Marine and Environmental Affairs, University of Washington
Director, Ocean Nexus Center at EarthLab, University of Washington

Dr. Yoshitaka Ota has a background in social anthropology at the University College London. He has conducted ethnographic research on various coastal communities, including Palau, UK, Indonesia and Japan, studying socialization and cultural meanings associated with fishing practices. He is also director of the Nippon Foundation Ocean Nexus Center, an international initiative comprising an interdisciplinary team of 20+ institutes and cross-disciplinary scholars. As an anthropologist conducting social and cultural research on various coastal communities, one recurring theme he has witnessed across the world is the inequity between who has access to and benefits from oceans and who relies on oceans to live. We know that the human relationship with oceans under modern market systems is unsustainable, unstable and inequitable. We hear that in stories about overfishing and plastic straws and coral reef. What we do not often see are the human stories about the ocean communities that are already facing urgent ecological, social and political problems, even before complex environmental challenges are layered on. We are not in the rooms where scientists and leaders make political and societal decisions to the best of their ability, but without the capacity to not further disadvantage the marginalized and the disempowered. We need to create a new platform for ocean governance to identify the inequities that exist, develop knowledge-based solutions, and actually enact these changes to make oceans equitable for everyone. 

Richard Cronin

Principal Adviser, Marine Environment (Water Division), Department of Housing, Local Government & Heritage, Ireland
Chair, OSPAR Commission

Richard Cronin is Principal Adviser for the marine environment in the Irish government. He leads a team that develop and implement policy, programmes and measures and legislation for the protection and sustainable use of the marine environment. He is Marine Director for Ireland under the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and is responsible for the expansion of Ireland’s network of marine protected areas. He represents Ireland at EU, macro-regional and global levels and negotiates for Ireland and as part of the EU team in different fora. He holds a degree in Civil Engineering from University College, Cork and has extensive experience in environmental protection, international negotiations and multilateral cooperation; policy design and implementation; and systems analysis and governance. He is responsible for the implementation of the Convention of the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR) in Ireland and was chair of the OSPAR Commission from 2018 – 2022.

Carl Grainger

Legal Counsellor
Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland

Carl Grainger is a Legal Counsellor at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland. He advises on a wide range of matters involving public international law, EU law and Irish law. He regularly represents Ireland at EU and UN level, in particular in law of the sea forums. He is a member of the EU team in the ongoing BBNJ negotiations, focusing on the area of capacity building and the transfer of marine technology. Previously he held positions with UNHCR, the Irish High Court and the School of Law, University College Dublin.

He holds an LLB in Law from the University of Durham, an LLM in Public International Law from University College London and a Barrister-at-Law Degree from King’s Inns. He was called to the Bar of Ireland in 2010.

Seokwoo Lee

Professor of International Law
Inha University Law School, Korea

Seokwoo LEE is Professor of International Law, Inha University Law School, Korea (2003-). He was Chairman of the Foundation for the Development of International Law in Asia (DILA) (2012-2017) and is Co-Chair of International Law Association (ILA) Study Group, Asian State Practice of Domestic Implementation of International Law (ASP-DIIL) (2018- ). He was Vice President of the Korean Society of International Law (2019) (Executive Board Member (2010- ), Director of International Relations (2010-2011)) and served as Chairman of Research Committee, SLOC (Sea Lanes of Communication) Study Group-Korea (2010-2013).

He is General Editor of Encyclopedia of Public International Law in Asia (EPILA) and Encyclopedia of Ocean Law and Policy in Asia-Pacific (EOLPA), Co-Editor-in-Chief of Asia-Pacific Journal of Ocean Law and Policy (APJOLP) and Asian Yearbook of International Law (Asian YBIL), Executive Editor of Korean Journal of International and Comparative Law (KJICL), Co-Series Editor of the book series entitled Maritime Cooperation in East Asia, and Associate Editor of Brill Research Perspectives in the Law of the Sea, all published by Brill.

He has authored more than 100 publications in English in addition to his more than 100 publications in Korean. His representative publications in English are: “Yeo Woon Taek v. New Nippon Steel Corporation”, American Journal of International Law (Vol.113, No.3) (2019) and The Making of International Law in Korea: From Colony to Asian Power (Brill/Nijhoff) (2016).

He is a graduate of Korea University where he received his undergraduate law degree and then went on to receive Master of Laws degrees from Korea University, the University of Minnesota, and New York University, and finally his doctorate from Oxford University. In addition, he has completed the required coursework for his doctoral degree program in Modern and Contemporary Korean History at the Department of Korean History, Korea University.

Ríán Derrig

Postdoctoral Fellow
WMU-Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute

Dr. Ríán Derrig is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the WMU-Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute of the World Maritime University. His current research focuses on the history and theory of international law, and topics at the intersection of the law of territory and the law of the sea.

Before joining the WMU, Ríán was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Center for Global Constitutionalism of the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. His research at the WZB focused on the influence of changing paradigms of psychological theory on twentieth century international law. Ríán defended his doctoral thesis, ‘Educating American Modernists: The Origins of the New Haven School’, at the European University Institute in September 2019. He was awarded the 2018 Young Scholar Prize of the European Society of International Law and the 2020 Antonio Cassese Prize for his work on the New Haven School. Ríán is currently writing a book, International Law and the Democratic Character: An Intellectual History of the New Haven School, which will be published by Oxford University Press.

In 2016, Ríán was a Visiting Researcher at Yale Law School. He has taught feminist legal theory at Trinity College Dublin and the European University Institute.

Ríán’s recent publications include: ‘Educating American Lawyers: The New Haven School’s Jurisprudence of Personal Character’, 31(3) European Journal of International Law (2020); and ‘Was Rockall Conquered? An Application of the Law of Territory to a Rockin the North Atlantic Ocean’, Vol. 14 Irish Yearbook of International Law(2019) [published July 2021].