Monday 3 November 2025
Guided tour of the Polar Museum
Dinner at Full Steam for speakers
Tuesday 4 November 2025
08:30 Registration & coffee
09:00 Welcome addresses
9:15-10:15 Keynote by Gabriele Goettsche-Wanli, former Director of the UN Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea
Moderator: Vito De Lucia, Director, Norwegian Centre for the Law of the Sea
10:15-10:30 Coffee
10:30-12:15 Panel 1: the UN Fish Stocks Agreement
Moderator: Eva van der Marel
Yoshinobu Takei ‘The United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement as a Source of Inspiration for Future Implementing Agreements’
Alexandros Ntovas ‘The Progressive Development of the Conservation and Management Law: Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and the silver lining in the sustainable regulation of straddling and highly migratory fish stocks.’
Tore Henriksen & Ingrid Solstad Andreassen ‘On the Move: Climate Change, Regulatory Challenges and the 1995 Fish Stocks Agreement'
Jianping Guo ‘Challenges for Arctic Fisheries under UNFSA in the Context of Climate Change’
Discussion (45 mins)
12:15 Group picture
12:30-13:30 Lunch
13:30-15:15 Panel 2: Part XI Implementation Agreement
Moderator: Maria Madalena das Neves
Henry Jones ‘The Part XI Implementation Agreement and the changing International Economic Order’
Nicolas Kempf ‘The 1994 Agreement, the ISA, Universality, and Conversation – An Impossible Debate?’
Maria Gameiro ‘Evolving Governance of Deep Seabed Mining: From the 1994 Implementation Agreement to BBNJ and the Future Mining Code’
Ekaterina Antsygina ‘The Crisis of the International Deep-Sea Mining Regime and the Rise of Unilateralism in the Exploitation of Critical Minerals’
Discussion (45 mins)
15:15-15:30 Coffee
15:30-17:00 Panel 3: The BBNJ Agreement
Moderator: Ingrid Solstad Andreassen
Kristine Dalaker ‘The Role of the Implementing Agreement in Further Developing Part XII of UNCLOS under the BBNJ Agreement’
Holly Leung ‘”Peaceful purposes” in the BBNJ Agreement and the LOSC: An interpretive exercise’
Joanna Mossop ‘The transformative potential of the BBNJ Agreement’
Discussion (45 mins)
Dinner for speakers (Kystens Mathus, upstairs on 2nd floor)
Wednesday 5 November 2025
9:00-10:00 Keynote by ambassador Rena Lee, Singapore Ambassador for International Law and Intergovernmental Conference President
Moderator: Vito De Lucia, Director, Norwegian Centre for the Law of the Sea
10:00-10:15 Coffee
10:15-11:45 Panel 4: ABMTs & SEA under the BBNJ Agreement
Moderator: Bastiaan Klerk
Kentaro Nishimoto ‘A Mechanism for “Recognizing” Existing Area-Based Management Tools under BBNJ Agreement’
Valentin Schatz & Alice Bertram ‘Legal Implications of the Designation of Area-Based Management Tools under the BBNJ Agreement in High Seas Areas above Extended Continental Shelves and Coastal States’
Yanxuedan Zhang, Wenlong Yu & Tang Yi ‘The Monetary Benefit-sharing of Marine Genetic Resources under the BBNJ Agreement: Unresolved Issues, Pragmatic Approach and Rule Formulation’
Discussion (45 mins)
11:45-13:00 Lunch
13:00-14:45 Panel 5: Cross-cutting issues
Moderator: Jan Solski
Efthymios Papastavridis ‘Implementation Questions under the BBNJ Agreement: Lessons to be learnt by the Fish Stocks Agreement’
Verma Sudhir, Saniya Khanna & Shruti ‘Chartering New Currents: Mini-Deals as Plurilateral Instruments for an ‘Effective’ Ecosystem-Based High Seas Governance’
Alf Håkon Hoel, Malgorzata Smieszek-Rice & Krittika Singh ‘Science–Policy Interfaces in UNCLOS Implementing Agreements: Lessons from the Past for the BBNJ Future’
Gemma Andreone ‘Cross-cutting Issues and Implementing Agreements under UNCLOS’
Discussion (45 mins)
14:45-15:00 Coffee
15:00-16:30 High level panel on the role of Implementing Agreements in the future of the Law of the Sea
Moderator: Ellen Hey
Speakers TBC.