The members of the IISTL are often invited to speak at national and international events, and the summer of 2022 has been a very busy period for several members. The following members engaged in various events:
Dr Kurtz-Shefford continued her role as co-convenor for the energy section of the prestigious SLS conference held this year at King’s College London in early September 2022. She oversaw two days’ worth of presentations on a wide range of energy law related topics, including discussions on transitional energy justice, policy developments for emerging green technologies and oil and gas. Being a new section within the SLS, the subject has increased in both importance and popularity. It now boasts attendance numbers equivalent to those found in more established sections and continues to grow, with this year attracting papers from academics within the United Kingdom, and internationally.
Dr George Leloudas presented a paper on autonomous vessels at the 10th International Conference on Maritime Law organised by the University of Athens and the Bar Association of Piraeus from the 26th to the 28th of May 2022. He also presented a paper on the regulation of autonomous drones in the UK at the RAPID Workshop organised by the University of Dundee from the 8th to the 10th September 2022.
Dr Aygun Mammadzada presented a paper titled “Multilateralism post-Brexit: Do the Hague Conventions preserve the status quo of judicial cooperation?” at the Conflict of Laws and Litigation panel of the 113th annual conference of the Society of Legal Scholars held at King’s College London on 6th-9th September 2022. This year’s conference theme was ‘The links and connections to legal development’ to explore the links and connections both within one legal system and across different legal systems and their influence on the development of law. Aygun’s paper examined the EU’s multilateralism policy concerning civil judicial cooperation with the UK in light of the Hague Conventions and revealed the revived nature of the application of multilateralism in civil judicial cooperation together with its inefficiency. Further, back in June 2022, she attended the International Symposium entitled ‘The role of courts in the digital era and access to justice’ held at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, in collaboration with the Institutions for Conflict Resolution group, the Digital Legal Studies group and the Interdisciplinary Hub on Privacy, Security and Data Governance (iHub). Her paper on “Digitalisation of Justice Systems and a New Role for Soft Law” examined the vital importance of soft law and suggested that the emergence and further expansion of digitalisation open new horizons to reassess soft regulation.
Dr Youri Van Logchem presented a paper at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Seminar on Development of a Regulatory Framework for Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) on a panel dealing with "Regulating MASS within the framework of UNCLOS". His paper was entitled “MASS and the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention – A Paradigm Shift or Old Wine in New Wineskins?” The panel was chaired by Ms Gillian Grant who is the Chair of the IMO Legal Committee. The other presenters on the panel were Professor Aldo Chircop (Dalhousie University) and Mr Murat Sumer (International Maritime Law Institute (IMLI)). The IMO seminar was held in advance of the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC)/Legal Committee (LEG)/Facilitation Committee (FAL) Joint Working Group on MASS (MASS-JWG) from 7th to 9th September 2022 to help inform the discussions on how best to regulate MASS.
Professor Soyer was invited to deliver a paper in May on “Cyber Risk Insurance for Maritime Sector” at the 10th International Conference of Maritime Law organised by Piraeus Bar Association in Athens. He formed part of a panel of speakers composed of Mr Fred Kenney (Director of Legal and External Affairs, IMO) and Mr Manolis Kostantinidis (Dr Jur- Attorney at Law). In August, he presented a paper “Insuring Autonomous and Remote Shipping” at the Implementing 'Fit for 55' - The Right Logistics and Transport Infrastructure for A Net-Zero Carbon Future conference organised by INTERTRAN Research Group of Helsinki University in collaboration with the Finnish Swedish Chamber of Commerce (FINSVE).
Professor Tettenborn was invited in September by the International Association of Maritime Economists and Korea Maritime Institute to Seoul to speak at an international conference. He delivered a paper at a session focussing on safety and security at sea evaluating how the rules of private law on safety etc had become more specific and less dependent on imprecise standards as a result of legislation and ad hoc contractual clauses.