Melissa Loja Presents Paper at 112th American Society of International Law Annual Meeting

PhD student Melissa Loja presented a paper on the New Voices in International Law panel of the 112th Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law in Washington DC from 4-7 April 2017. Based on work done for her dissertation, Ms Loja’s presentation focused on the legal significance of international agreements between non-state actors. She discussed international agreements that national petroleum corporations, such as Petronas, PetroVietnam, PetroleumBrunei and China National Offshore Oil Corporations, enter into to manage disputes over petroleum resources that are shared by states across maritime zones and boundaries.

    The panel commentator, Professor Laurence Helfer, Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of International Law, remarked that Ms Loja’s paper makes a concrete and original contribution to international law, because it presents primary data that have not been made known before, and it enables a granular examination of actual practices in international law.