List of Speakers

Dr Robin Cleverly founded Marbdy Consulting Ltd in March 2015 to supply expert technical advice in the field of maritime boundary determination particularly dispute resolution, principally to governments and law firms. This follows on from 25 years as a geologist in the oil industry, and 15 years working in the specialised field of maritime boundaries, ultimately as Head of the Law of the Sea Group at the UK Hydrographic Office. He has worked extensively on international maritime boundary court cases at the ICJ, ITLOS and Annex VII tribunals, and also on outer continental shelf submissions before the CLCS. He is a co-author with Stephen Fietta of "A Practitioner’s Guide to Maritime Boundary Delimitation" to be published in March 2016 by Oxford University Press.

Prof. Taisaku Ikeshima is professor of international law and Japan's foreign policy at School of International Liberal Studies, Waseda University, Japan. He is currently an expert member of an Arctic Studies Committee and of an Antarctic Survey Committee in the Japanese Ministry of Education (MEXT). He has served as legal adviser at the Japanese Embassy in the Netherlands, and has lectured as Visiting Professor at various universities, including SciencesPo at Paris, Shanghai Ocean University, and the University of Cambridge (LCIL). He wrote The Antarctic Treaty System and International Law, Keio University Press (KUP), 2000. His recent publications include 'China's Dashed Line in the South China Sea', Waseda Global Forum (WGF), No. 10, 2014; 'Applicability of the Law of the Sea in the Settlement of Territorial and Maritime Disputes in the East and South China Seas', WGF, No. 11, 2015; 'Arctic States and Asian States for Arctic International Governance and Security', Transcommunication, Vol. 2, 2015.

Dr Bjørn Kunoy is legal adviser in the Faroe Islands foreign affairs department. Kunoy has lengthy experiences as a practitioner, including advising and representing States in disputes relating to maritime boundaries. His experiences include also acting as chief legal adviser in the preparation and finalization of five outer continental shelf claims, therein the arctic outer continental shelf claim stemming from Greenland which abuts the North Pole. Kunoy has also experiences with CLCS matters many of which are obtained in numerous meetings with the CLCS in which he presided the respective delegations.

Wendy Miles QC is global head of arbitration in the London office of Boies, Schiller & Flexner and an experienced lawyer qualified in England and New Zealand. She concentrates on international arbitration, including under the auspices of the International Chamber of Commerce Court of Arbitration, London Court of International Arbitration, Permanent Court of Arbitration, Hong Kong International Arbitration Court, Singapore International Arbitration Court, Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, ICSID and UNCITRAL, and ad hoc arbitration and public international law. Ms. Miles QC deals with both private and public international law issues. She has acted as advisor and advocate for a number of international companies and states or state parties in arbitration proceedings conducted in various jurisdictions. Key sectors include manufacturing, financial services, pharmaceutical, licensing, telecommunications, insurance, construction and energy. She was lead co-counsel for South Sudan in the Abyei Arbitration, a major boundary delimitation proceeding conducted under the auspices of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

Prof. Martin Pratt is Director of Bordermap Consulting, which works to support international boundary-making and territorial dispute resolution around the world. Martin has advised governments, NGOs and commercial organisations on a wide range of boundary and sovereignty issues, and has provided technical support to governments in numerous international boundary negotiations and third-party dispute settlement proceedings. He led the International Boundaries Research Unit at Durham University from 2002-2014 and remains an Honorary Professor of Geography at the university. He has also served as an advisor to the United Nations Geographic Information Working Group Task Force on International Boundaries and the African Union Border Programme.

Prof. Clive Symmons has taught law for many years in universities on both sides of the Irish Sea, most particularly at the University of Bristol; and was formerly Adjunct Professor in the Marine Law and Ocean Policy Centre at NUI, Galway. He is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at Trinity College, Dublin. He has written extensively in the area of International Law with particular reference to the Law of the Sea where (apart from many articles) his books include: The Maritime Zones of Islands in International Law (1979), Ireland and the Law of the Sea (editions 1993 & 2000), Irish Maritime Law Statutes Annotated 2000-2005 (2006), Historic Waters in the Law of the Sea: A Modern Re-Appraisal (2008); and (following a conference which he organised in Dublin in 2010), his edited book, Selected Contemporary Issues in the Law of the Sea (2011). He has acted as a an expert witness twice for the US federal Government in maritime disputes with Alaska over, respectively, the status of an 'ice island' (Dinkum Sands) in US v Alaska (1984) and historic waters in the Alexander Archipelago (Alaska v US (2005)), as well as having done consultancy work for the Irish Government on law of the sea issues. His most recent conference papers have concerned aspects of the South China Sea dispute (given in Singapore, China and Vietnam in 2013); and are now contained in book chapters. He has also acted recently as a commentator on various articles in the soon-to be-published new UN Convention on the Law of the Sea: A Commentary (Beck/Hart imprint).

Robert Volterra is a founding partner of Volterra Fietta. He advises and represents governments, international organisations and private clients on a wide range of contentious and non-contentious public international law issues, including sovereignty over natural resources and land and maritime boundaries. He has acted as co-agent, counsel or advocate in land and maritime disputes before the International Court of Justice and UNCLOS Annex VII maritime boundary tribunals. He has represented parties in other international law disputes before the ICJ and ad hoc international arbitration tribunals, including under the PCA, ICSID, ICC, SCC, LCIA, UNCITRAL, and WTO rules. Robert is a Visiting Professor of International Law at University College, University of London (UCL), and a Visiting Senior Lecturer at Kings College, London, where he teaches the international law of foreign investment and the international law of boundary disputes. He is on the International Law Advisory Board of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law. Robert's practice has been ranked in the top tier by the Legal 500 and the Chambers and Partners law firm directories for more than 15 years.

Dr Philippa Webb is Reader in Public International Law at King's College London, having joined academia after a decade in international legal practice. She served as the Special Assistant and Legal Officer to President Rosalyn Higgins of the International Court of Justice (2006-2009) and, prior to that, as the Judicial Clerk to Judges Higgins and Owada (2004-2005). During her time at the ICJ, she worked on three maritime boundary disputes. Her publications include International Judicial Integration and Fragmentation (OUP, 2013) and The Law of State Immunity (3rd rev edn, OUP, 2015, with Lady Hazel Fox QC).

Chris Whomersley has recently retired as Deputy Legal Adviser in the United Kingdom's Foreign & Commonwealth Office after a career spanning thirty-six years and covering many areas of international law. Chris spent a number of years dealing with aviation issues, and he has been involved in the Channel Tunnel project since its inception. For the last ten years, he was responsible for policy on international law of the sea. This included dealing with these issues both multilaterally and bilaterally, as well as in the European Union. He led the United Kingdom delegations in a number of bilateral negotiations on maritime delimitation. He was also the leader of the UK delegation to the International Seabed Authority, and was a member of its Finance Committee. Recently, he was responsible for the arrangements relating to the declaration of an Exclusive Economic Zone around the United Kingdom, as well as for the law updating UK legislation on deep sea mining. In June 2014 Chris was honoured by HM The Queen for his services to international law.

John Williams is Professor of International Relations in the School of Government and International Affairs at Durham University. His principal research interests lie in the so-called 'English school' of International Relations theory, where he has written extensively on the pluralist ethical position; and contemporary just war theory, in particular the impact of technological innovation and changing geographical perspectives. His most recent book is, 'Ethics, Diversity and World Politics: Saving Pluralism From Itself?' published in 2015 by Oxford University Press, and he has recently published articles on the ethics of 'drones' in 'Ethics & International Affairs' and on the regulation of emergent autonomous weapons in 'Global Policy'.

Dr Xinjun Zhang is an Associate Professor of Public International Law at Tsinghua University, Beijing. His research interests include the Law of the Sea, International Environmental Law, Non-proliferation Law and the Law of Treaties. He is the Executive Director of the Center for the Law of the Sea Study in Tsinghua Law School, also a member of International Law Association (ILA), participating ILA Committee on the Legal Principles relating to Climate Change.