Month: March 2022

This week marks the return of the Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction or BBNJ. The Fourth session of the conference is scheduled to take place between the 7th and 18th of this month in New York. There is pressure to reach an agreement on a new legally binding instrument under UNCLOS. I will follow the conference closely as any development from this will likely be included in my doctoral research.

In my last post, I stated that I would write a piece regarding Turkey closing off access to the Black Sea for warships. There has been a call for articles regarding maritime security, in which I will likely submit the piece to that, instead of on this blog. If selected, I may link to the article.

As all of you must be quite aware, these are some troubling times. After two years of a pandemic, we have now moved into the early stages of a potential global conflict. I live in one of the Nordic countries, and you can feel the tension. For instance, iodine tablets have been sold out at pharmacies due to nuclear accident/attack fear.

I thought to write a post regarding my opinion on the many legal aspects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The issues seem to grow by the day, war of aggression, self-defence, self-determination, war crimes, ICJ application, ICC investigations, and whether Russia can be removed from the UNSC (or are they even a legit USSR successor). I follow many intelligent international legal scholars who have varying opinions on the matter, and since my expertise is in Law of the Sea, I think I will back away from most of these topics. However, Turkey has flip-flopped on closing the Black Sea to Russian warships. I will do a post on that this weekend.

My Ph.D. research is still in the beginning stages. I am currently taking a swedish language class, research tools, and a research ethics class. These, especially swedish, take up a lot of my time. The spring and summer will be dedicated to my research and writing before taking courses in the fall. I plan on taking legal methods and legal theory courses.

Since my last post, I had a little book recommendation/review selected and posted to the International Law Reporter Blog. I was pretty happy with that. I have also received a funding grant from my University, which will hold me over until September.

Anyway, stay safe and healthy, everyone.