RUSK CENTER CONFERENCE EXPLORES "GOVERNING THE GLOBAL OCEAN"

Abstract

Wednesday, March 22, 2000

WRITER: Kathy R. Pharr, (706) 542-5172, pharr@arches.uga.edu

CONTACT: Dorinda Dallmeyer, (706) 542-5141, dorindad@arches.uga.edu

RUSK CENTER CONFERENCE EXPLORES "GOVERNING THE GLOBAL OCEAN"

ATHENS, Ga. - The world's leading marine environmental law experts will convene at UGA's Dean Rusk Center on Tuesday, April 4, for an afternoon conference devoted to the law of the sea. "Governing the Global Ocean," cosponsored by the Rusk Center and UGA's Environmental Ethics Certificate Program (EECP), is designated as a regional meeting of the American Society of International Law and is underwritten in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation. It is open and free to the public.

The conference, which runs from 1 - 5 p.m. on the fourth floor of Dean Rusk Hall, features presentations by three academic experts: Jon Van Dyke, law professor at the University of Hawaii, "Marine Environmental Ethics for the 21st Century" at 1 p.m; Christopher Joyner, who teaches international law in the Department of Government at Georgetown University, "The Southern Ocean and the Law of the Sea: Challenges for the New Millennium" at 2 p.m.; and Biliana Cicin-Sain, professor in the Graduate College of Marine Studies at the University of Delaware, "Status and Prospects for Integrated Coastal Management: A Global Perspective" at 3 p.m. Dorinda Dallmeyer, associate director of the Rusk Center, will preside over the conference and moderate a concluding roundtable discussion at 4 p.m.

"The global ocean is the largest feature on the planet and yet too often it's ignored as we make decisions about the future, whether at the local or international level," said Dallmeyer. "I'm delighted that we'll have this opportunity to think big. With the expert guidance of our speakers, we'll be examining issues such as the international efforts to protect fisheries, the special circumstances of the seas around Antarctica, and the impact of international law on planning for activities along the U.S. coast, including Georgia. All of us have a stake in the outcome as we move toward better conservation of the seas in the 21st century."

Van Dyke has written or edited seven books and many articles on constitutional law and international law topics. His most recent co-authored book is entitled Sharing the Resources of the South China Sea. His previous co-edited book, Freedom for the Seas in the 21st Century: Ocean Governance and Environmental Harmony, received the Harold and Margaret Sprout Award from the International Studies Association for excellence in the field of international environmental policy. He has served as a consultant for the South Pacific Regional Environmental Programme, the Permanent South Pacific Commission, the Association of Pacific Island Legislatures, the governments of Turkey and Nauru, as well as various state and local entities in Hawaii. He is a member of the editorial boards of Marine Policy and The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law, and is on the advisory board of the Center for International Environmental Law in Washington, D.C.

Joyner has held senior Antarctic-related research fellowships with the Marine Policy Center at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Institute of Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies at the University of Tasmania, Australia. He is presently on the executive council of the American Society of International Law and has also been elected to its executive committee. Currently a member of the governing council of the Academic Council on the United Nations (ACUNS) and three times past chair of the International Law Section of the International Studies Association, Joyner has served on the board of directors of the Antarctican Society, as chair of the International Law Association's Committee on Antarctica and as a member of the ILA's Committee on the Law of the Sea. He has written more than 300 articles in law reviews and published 10 books, among them Antarctica and the Law of the Sea, Eagle Over the Ice: The U.S. in the Antarctic and Governing the Frozen Commons: The Antarctic Regime and Environmental Protection.

Cicin-Sain has written extensively on a range of marine policy issues, including fisheries management, marine mammal management, offshore oil development, integrated coastal management, multiple use conflicts, and international marine policy. She currently serves as co-director of the Center for the Study of Marine Policy at the University of Delaware and as editor-in-chief of Ocean and Coastal Management, an international journal devoted to the analysis of all aspects of ocean and coastal management. She also founded and directed the University of California's Ocean and Coastal Policy Center; served as a senior fellow at the Marine Policy Center, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; and was a policy analyst for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Cicin-Sain is a member of the Marine Board and past member of the Ocean Studies Board of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. She also chairs the international committee of the Marine Affairs and Policy Association and is a consultant on integrated coastal management to the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission.

The Dean Rusk Center - International, Comparative and Graduate Legal Studies conducts research, presents conferences, promotes teaching, and provides information concerning international and comparative law. Through these activities, the Rusk Center seeks to place scholarship at the service of decision makers, including governmental officials and private sector leaders; to provide a sound basis for policy judgments for the improvement of the lives of the people of the state of Georgia and the nation; to increase international understanding; and to contribute to the solution of problems and issues of international significance.

The Environmental Ethics Certificate Program was the first certificate program of its type in the United States and now is the largest in the world. The EECP has grown from a modest beginning in 1983 of 20 faculty members and 4 graduate students to a nationally recognized program of 44 faculty members (representing 24 different departments), 60 undergraduate students, 16 graduate students, and more than 250 friends. The EECP is affiliated with the School of Marine Programs.

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