Category Archives for "Commentators"

Craig Vogt

President
Craig Vogt Inc; Western Dredging Association (WEDA) Board of Directors

Craig Vogt was Deputy Director of the USEPA’s Ocean and Coastal Protection Division in Washington, DC, USA, for 18 years, responsible for national regulatory programs controlling the disposal of wastes in marine waters. Mr. Vogt was also responsible for coastal ecosystem restoration planning and remediation in the 28 National Estuary Programs across the USA.

Mr. Vogt led the U.S. delegation to meetings of the London Convention & Protocol from 1991 to 2003. He Chaired the Scientific Group of the LC/LP from 2004-2007, during which time updates to the LC/LP Waste Assessment Guidelines were put in place, regional workshops were conducted on  marine pollution prevention, and new guidance was developed and adopted on sequestration of carbon in deep seabeds.

Mr. Vogt is now an environmental engineer with Craig Vogt Inc., Ocean & Coastal Environmental Consulting. Projects include dredged material management, marine disposal of mine tailings, deep sea mining, management of contaminated sediments, economic/environmental effects of eroding shorelines, and coastal habitat restoration. 

For the Secretariat of the LC/LP, Mr. Vogt prepared reports on marine disposal of mine tailings, low cost/low technology field and compliance monitoring, site selection for waste disposal in ocean waters, control/prevention of microplastics in waste disposed at sea, and the GESAMP Workshop Proceedings on the impacts of mine tailings in the marine environment.

He represents the World Organization of Dredging Associations (WODA) at meetings of the LC/LP and is Chair of WODA’s Environmental Commission. Craig is a member of the Western (i.e., hemisphere) Dredging Association’s (WEDA) Board of Directors and Chairs WEDA’s Environmental Commission. 

In 2008, Craig received the highest civilian award from USEPA, the Distinguished Career Award, and in 2019 received WEDA’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Mr. Vogt has a B.S. in Civil Engineering and an M.S. in Environmental Engineering, both from Oregon State University.

Måns Jacobsson

Professor
Former Director and CEO, International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds (IOPC Funds)

Måns Jacobsson was Director and Chief Executive Officer of the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds (IOPC Funds) 1985-2006. In his earlier career he served in the Swedish judiciary at district court and appellate court level, and he has held the post of President of Division of the Stockholm Court of Appeal. He has also been Head of the Department of International Civil Law of the Swedish Ministry of Justice.

He has been a member of the Board of Governors of the World Maritime University (WMU) in Malmö (Sweden) since 2010. After his retirement from the IOPC Funds he works as a consultant in maritime and environmental matters and as an academic lecturer at numerous institutions in a number of countries, inter alia as Visiting Professor at the WMU and at the Maritime Universities in Dalian and Shanghai and as Visiting Fellow at the IMO International Maritime Law Institute (IMLI) in Malta. He is also a corresponding member of the Argentine Academia nacional de derecho y ciencias sociales. He is Academic Associate of Quadrant Chambers, a set of leading barristers in London specializing in commercial law. He has published three books and numerous articles in various fields of law.

The University of Southampton has conferred upon him the Degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa. In 2010 he was awarded the King of Sweden’s Gold Medal for significant achievements in the fields of marine environment and shipping.

Maria Carolina Romero Lares

Associate Professor
World Maritime University

Dr. Romero received a Law degree from the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1995. She initiated her career as a lawyer working for the firm Rodríguez & Mendoza, Abogados and later at the Legal Department of Banco de Venezuela (Bank of Venezuela) in Caracas. She obtained a LL.M. degree from Tulane University, New Orleans, in the U.S. and she continued her education in Germany, where she finished her Ph.D. at Hannover Universität with honors (cum laude).

From 2005 to 2009 she worked at the International Affairs Office of the Venezuelan Maritime Administration (INEA) in Caracas, where she reached the position of Head of the International Office and represented her country in several international meetings at IMO and the IOPC Funds in London. During those years she was elected as President (ad-honorem) of the Advisory Committee on the Law of the Sea and Maritime Law by the Secretary of Transportation’s Office of Venezuela; in order to produce maritime legislation proposals to be presented to the Secretary and subsequently to the Venezuelan Parliament.

She started her academic career in 2005 as a part-time Professor at the Universidad Nacional Experimental Marítima del Caribe (Venezuelan Maritime University), where she taught several courses dealing with Law of the Sea and IMO Conventions, supervised master dissertations and acted as referee for several publications. She was also invited to lecture at the Venezuelan Diplomatic Academy.

Dr. Romero joined WMU in 2010 and currently teaches the following courses: Maritime Law & International Maritime Conventions, Law of the Sea and Maritime Security, Law and Policy related to the Marine Environment and Principles of Maritime Administration and Management. She is also in charge of organizing the annual Moot Court Competition for the Master of Science Law & Policy Specialization focusing on current issues of public international law.

Dr. Romero has been very active in the delivery of Professional Development Courses on the Law of the Sea with special focus on Maritime Boundary Delimitations. She has also participated as a speaker in several conferences regarding the protection of the marine environment and the advancement and empowerment of women.

Her main areas of research are Law of the Sea, pollution liabilities, ocean governance, and the IOPC Funds.

Vasco Becker-Weinberg

Professor
Faculty of Law of the Universidade NOVA de Lisboa

Professor Vasco Becker-Weinberg is a professor at the Faculty of Law of the Universidade Lusófona, teaching Constitutional Law, Public International Law and EU Law. He is also the founder and former coordinator of the Masters on Law and Economics of the Sea at NOVA School of Law, where he lectures on the Law of the Sea and EU Law of the Sea. He has researched at prominent academic institutions and written and published extensively on the Law of the Sea. He is the founder and president of IPDM–The Portuguese Institute of the Law of the Sea (www.ipdm.pt) and the Editor-in-Chief of the recently launched Portuguese Yearbook of the Law of the Sea. He has been on several delegations to international fora and often advises on public international law and the law of the sea matters. More recently he has been part of the national Portuguese delegation to the intergovernmental conference on an international legally binding instrument under UNCLOS on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction. He has also been involved in the drafting of policies and legislation on many ocean governance subjects. He is currently Law Clerk at the Portuguese Constitutional Court and was previously Legal Advisor to the Portuguese Secretary of the Sea and a full-time scholar at the International Max Planck Research School for Maritime Affairs at the University of Hamburg.

Hide Sakaguchi

President
Ocean Policy Research Institute

Dr. Hide Sakaguchi has served as president of the Ocean Policy Research Institute (OPRI) of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation (SPF) since April 2021, and as an executive director of SPF since April 2022. Previously, he served as Executive Director at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC, 2018-2021). He joined JAMSTEC in 2003 and led various earth science programs as director of the Institute for Research on Earth Evolution and director of the Center of Mathematical Science and Advanced Technology.

He specializes in granular and fracture mechanics, simulation science and programming, earthquake mechanisms and plate tectonics, and oceanography.  He served as a principal research scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia (1998-2002) and adjunct professor at the Earthquake Research Institute, The University of Tokyo (2002–2003). He has a Ph.D from the Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University.

Richard Barnes

Professor, Chair of International Law
University of Lincoln

Richard Barnes is Professor of International Law at the University of Lincoln. He is also Adjunct Professor of Law at the Norwegian Centre for the Law of the Sea, the University of Tromsø.

He is widely published in the fields of international law and law of the sea. Property Rights and Natural Resources (2009), won the SLS Birks Book Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship. In addition, he has edited five highly regarded collections, including Frontiers in International Environmental Law. Oceans and Climate. Essays in Honour of David Freestone (2021), the Research Handbook on Climate Change, Oceans and Coasts (2020), and The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea: A Living Instrument (2016). He is currently working on papers on plastics and the circular economy, stewardship of the oceans, global solidarity and the law of the sea, the impact of COVID in maritime law, and the potential for an advisory opinion before international courts on climate induced sea-level rise. 

Professor Barnes is Current Legal Developments Editor of the International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law.  He is also on the editorial boards of the New Zealand Yearbook of International Law and the German Yearbook of International Law.

He has acted as a consultant for a range of public and private bodies, including the WWF, the European Parliament, the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, and Ministry for Transport. He also provided advice to foreign ministries.  He has appeared numerous times before Parliamentary select committees on matters related to law of the sea, fisheries and Brexit.

Zhen Sun

Associate Professor (Research/Ocean Sustainability, Governance & Management)

Dr. Zhen Sun is an Associate Professor (Research/Ocean Sustainability, Governance & Management) at the WMU-Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute, World Maritime University in Malmö, Sweden. Her main research interests include law of the sea, international regulation of shipping, gender equality in ocean governance, climate actions and the protection of the marine environment.

At WMU, Zhen has played an active role in the launch and execution of a number of high-level research programmes, including serving as Co-Principal Investigator (PI) for both the Land-to-Ocean Leadership Programme and the Empowering Women for the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development Programme. She contributes to the delivery of the MSc Ocean Sustainability, Governance & Management (OSGM) specialization, and the PhD Programme in Maritime Affairs through substantial teaching and supervision commitments.

Prior to joining WMU, Zhen was a Research Fellow at the Centre for International Law (CIL), National University of Singapore. She was a member of the CIL Ocean Law and Policy team, in which she worked on a wide range of subjects in the law of the sea. Zhen was the researcher-in-charge for a number of research projects and capacity building activities at CIL, including projects funded by the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore.

Zhen has contributed to the editorial work of a couple of book projects and published a number of book chapters and journal articles on various topics on the law of the sea.  Zhen received the Bachelor of Laws Degree from Hainan University and a LLM in International Law from China University of Political Science and Law in China. She continued her education in the United Kingdom where she received a LLM in Public International Law (with distinction) from the University of Edinburgh and a PhD from the University of Cambridge.

George Theocharidis

Professor of Maritime Law & Policy, World Maritime University

George Theocharidis is a Professor of Maritime Law & Policy at World Maritime University. He is a member of the Piraeus Law Bar & a qualified advocate before Areios Pagos (Supreme Court) with extensive litigation practice, as weel as a full member of the Hellenic Maritime Law Association since 2000. Prof. Theoccharidis is a upporting Member of the London Maritime Arbitrators Association (LMAA) since 2004 and is a consultant of the IMO E-Roaster.

His research interests concentrate on Carriage of Goods by Sea, Marine Insurance, Conflict of Laws, Methodology of Law, Ship Arrest and Maritime Policy. He is the author of the books “Tort Liability of the Sea Carrier under Hague-Visby Rules” (2000), “The Co-ownership on Vessel as legal form for the exercise of maritime commercial activity” (2008) and co-author of “ Greek Maritime Law” (2015). He has also published several articles (“All About Freedom of Contract? Bunker Supply Arrangements Post-Res Cogitans in Global Context”, “Mechanisms of Protection From Non-Contractual Modes of Recovery in Sea Carriage – A Comparison Between Common Law and Civil Law Systems”, “Relationship between forum shopping and flag in satisfaction of security rights on a ship”, “Jurisdiction for Provisional Relief under the Brussels Convention in Maritime Context” et al.) His published research work in international referred periodicals (J.Mar.L&C., R.H.D.I.) has received numerous citations from courts and legal theory (Heidelberg Report).

Co-author of the Training Package on “Maritime Transport Policy”, instructed by IMO TCD. Member of the Working Group of the Legal Committee of IMO pertaining to “Measures to Prevent Unlawful Practices Associated with Fraudulent Registration and Fraudulent Registries of Ships”. Joint Rapporteur of the International Working Group of the Comité Maritime International (CMI) on “Liability for the Wrongful Arrest of Ships”.

Holder of LL.M. degree from the University of Cambridge (UK) and a Ph.D. from Aristotle University (Greece)

Christina Voigt

Professor of Law at the University of Oslo, Norway

Dr. Christina Voigt is an internationally renowned expert in international environmental law and teaches, speaks
and publishes widely on legal issues of climate change, environmental multilateralism and sustainability. From 2009-2018, she worked as principal legal adviser for the Government of Norway in the UN climate negotiations and negotiated the Paris Agreement and its Rulebook. Professor Voigt is Chair of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law (WCEL) and Co-chair of the Paris Agreement Implementation and Compliance Committee. She
also is a mother of two young boys, Victor and Oscar.

Roxanne Graham

PhD Candidate and Research Assistant, WMU-Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute, WMU

Roxanne is a Research Assistant and PhD Candidate in Maritime Affairs at World Maritime University, Sweden. She is also an Instructor at St. George’s University’s Biology, Ecology and Conservation Department. Roxanne completed her Master of Marine Management Degree at Dalhousie University, Canada in 2016. Prior to her graduate studies, Roxanne was a Project Assistant at Roberts Caribbean, Ltd., Environmental and Development Consulting. Roxanne has experience in conducting environmental consultancies and contributing to several environmental related national reports for Grenada. She currently serves as Editor to the Grenada National Ecosystem Assessment.  Roxanne’s research interest include marine ecology and conservation, ocean related policies, and coastal zone issues in small island developing states. Roxanne is  also the Vice-President of Gaea Conservation Network, Grenada and the Managing Director of Face of Grenada-Beauty with a Purpose.