The Interplay between Maritime Security and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea: Help or Hindrance?

Event date

6 February 2020

Event time

12:30 - 14:00

Oxford week

Venue

The Old Library - All Souls College

Speaker(s)

Dr Sofia Galani

The concept of maritime security and its interplay with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC) have attracted a lot of attention in recent years. This talk will focus on the meaning of maritime security in the literature and state practice and explore its relationship with LOSC. It will argue that maritime security is not simply a concept that needs defining but a blend of threats and activities by state and non-state actors. This will invite consideration of whether LOSC can help or hinder the efforts of states to address this emerging blend of threats and activities at sea. To evaluate this point, the conduct of maritime law enforcement operations by states as well as the development of maritime domain awareness and information-sharing practices will be discussed. It will be explained that LOSC cannot offer a solution to all maritime security threats, and thus states have turned to new tools and agreements to strengthen the security of the oceans, which represents a paradigm shift in the international law of the sea.

Dr Sofia Galani (LLB, LLM, PhD, FHEA) is Lecturer in Law at the University of Bristol. Her research interests lie in the field of the international law of the sea, maritime security, human rights law and terrorism studies. She is a co-editor of the collection on Maritime Security and the Law of the Sea: Help or Hindrance? (with Sir Malcolm Evans, Edward Elgar, 2020). Her monograph entitled Hostages and Human Rights: Towards a Victim-Centred Approach? is due to be published by Cambridge University Press. Sofia has been providing legal advice to the Global Maritime Crime Programme of the UNODC and been sitting at the Non-Executive Board of Advisors of Human Rights at Sea. She is the Editor of the Case and Comment section of the European Human Rights Law Review.

___

The PIL Discussion Group hosts a weekly speaker event and light lunch and is a key focal point for PIL@Oxford. Topics involve contemporary and challenging issues in international law. Speakers include distinguished international law practitioners, academics, and legal advisers from around the world.

The group typically meets each Thursday during Oxford terms in The Old Library, All Souls College, with lunch commencing at 12:30. The speaker will commence at 12:45 and speak for about forty minutes, allowing about twenty five minutes for questions and discussion. The meeting should conclude before 2:00. Practitioners, academics and students from within and outside the University of Oxford are all welcome. No RSVP is necessary. Join the PIL Email List to receive information about the PIL Discussion Group meetings, as well as other PIL@Oxford news.

To join the Public International Law Discussion Group email list, which offers details of all events and other relevant information, send a message to: pil-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk . (You do not need to write any text in the body of the message, or even put anything in the Subject: line unless your mailer insists on it.) You will be sent a confirmation request, and once you reply to that, a message confirming your subscription will follow. Alternatively, you can send an email to Jenny Hassan to be added to the PIL mailing list.

Convenors of the Oxford Public International Law Discussion Group are: Hannes Jöbstl and Tsvetelina van Benthem.

The discussion group's meetings are part of the programme of the British Branch of the International Law Association and are supported by the Law Faculty and Oxford University Press.

Found within

Public International Law

Part of

Public International Law Research Group PIL Discussion Group

The Interplay between Maritime Security and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea: Help or Hindrance?

Who to contact?