Professor Charles Norchi, Director of the Marine Law Institute chairs Conference on 25th Anniversary of Gulf of Maine Maritime Boundary case

Associate Professor Charles Norchi, Director of the Marine Law Institute, with Research Professor and Director of the Center for Law and Innovation, Rita Heimes, organized a Symposium commemorating the 25th anniversary of the International Court of Justice Case Concerning Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary in the Gulf of Maine Area (Canada/United States of America), on November 13 and 14. It was a collaboration between the Marine Law Institute and the Marine & Environmental Law Institute at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada. The symposium began with a panel of lawyers that appeared before the World Court twenty-five years ago this Fall, and the remaining Judge who co-authored the opinion. That panel was followed by sessions addressing the significance of the Gulf of Maine case for international maritime boundary law, marine resource management, and ocean energy development. Participants came from Korea, Hawaii, Boston, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Washington DC and Portland, Maine, and included a range of academics, officials, researchers, and others. Judge Stephen Schwebel, former President of the World Court, delivered the dinner address: “The Establishment of the Court's Chamber: a Close Call." The proceedings and selected conference papers will be published in the Spring 2010 Symposium issue of the Maine Law's Ocean and Coastal Law Journal.