Monday 3 November 2025  

Program for invited speakers: 

Guided tour of the Polar Museum at 16:30 (for those who are registered).

Dinner at Full Steam  at 17:30 (for invited speakers and guests who registered).


Tuesday 4 November 2025   

Conference venue: UiT the Arctic University of Norway, Teorifagbygget, hus 6, Auditorium 3

Access livestreaming for all sessions on Tuesday via this link

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  

Rapporteur: Tina Awuor Owuor

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.’  

Ingrid Solstad Andreassen & Tore Henriksen ‘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)  

Rapporteur: Tina Awuor Owuor

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)  

Rapporteur: Marie Sybil Tropicales

15:15-15:30 Coffee  

15:30-17:00 Panel 3: The BBNJ Agreement  
Moderator: Maria Gavouneli

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) 

Rapporteur: Adelaide Luminari

19.00 Conference dinner at Kystens Mathus (upstairs on 2nd floor, entrance through Hav sushi on the harbor side of the building)


Wednesday 5 November 2025  

Conference venue: UiT the Arctic University of Norway, Teorifagbygget, hus 6, Auditorium 3

Access livestreaming for all sessions on Wednesday: via this link.

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  

Rapporteur: Marie Sybil Tropicales

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’ 

Constance Johnson 'The ATS as an IFB (or not) - what will be the impacts on Antarctic governance of the new BBNJ instrument once in force?'

Discussion (45 mins)  

Rapporteur: Marie Sybil Tropicales

11:45-13:00 Lunch  

13:00-14:30 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’  

Alf Håkon Hoel, Malgorzata Smieszek-Rice & Krittika Singh ‘Science–Policy Interfaces in UNCLOS Implementing Agreements: Lessons from the Past for the BBNJ Future’  

Konstantinos Virvos 'The BBNJ Agreement and the IMO: possibility and limits for the adoption of measures regulating shipping under the BBNJ Agreement Part III'

Discussion (45 mins)  

Rapporteur: Adelaide Luminari

14:30-14:45 Coffee  

14:45-16:00 High level panel on the role of Implementing Agreements in the future of the Law of the Sea  

Moderator: Ellen Hey

Speakers: Gabriele Goettsche-Wanli, Rena Lee, Joanna Mossop, Vito De Lucia

Rapporteur: Tina Awuor Owuor