Join us for a Centre for Law as Protection research seminar with the Centre’s international visitor, Professor Gina Heathcote from Newcastle University (UK).
Professor Heathcote will share insights from their research on Feminist Approaches to Ocean Governance, examining the apertures and possibilities for feminist approaches to the international law of sea, biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction, maritime security, and the institutions of ocean governance. Details about the event and speaker are provided below.
The seminar will be chaired by Associate Professor Tamsin Paige.
The seminar will take place on 13th January from 12:30 to 14:00 at Deakin Law School Boardroom, Deakin Burwood Campus, building LC level 7. Lunch will be served at 12:30, and the talk will commence shortly thereafter.
You can also join us via zoom, at: Join Zoom Meeting (meeting ID: 889 4482 5942, passcode: 23572287)
For catering purposes, please indicate in your RSVP if you will attend in-person and provide any dietary requirements.
Your participation is appreciated.
Abstract
Ocean governance, and the law of the sea, is often understood by international lawyers as a
technical legal field that does not lend itself to critical legal inquiry. In this paper, I consider the ways in which feminist legal methodologies might enrich our understandings and approaches to the international law of the sea and ocean governance. At a time of planetary crisis that positions the health of our oceans as central to human and non-human wellbeing, this ‘oceanic turn’ for feminist legal approaches to international law offers an opportunity to expand, rethink and consolidate feminist approaches to international law in ways that significantly shift beyond persistent debates in the field and with capacity for deep structural legal change that is of significant value to feminist, critical and decolonial approaches to international law. The paper examines the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, normative legal structures that shape ocean governance, international legal institutions, spaces of vulnerability, maritime security and legal subjectivity: the scope and range thus embracing the reach of ocean governance and tracing the contours of my forthcoming book: The International Law of the Sea: a Feminist Analysis (Routledge Series on Feminist and Queer International Law, forthcoming 2026).
Speaker
Gina Heathcote is Professor of Public International Law at the Newcastle University, UK, and a leading voice on feminist approaches to international law, having previously been Professor of Gender Studies and International Law at SOAS, University of London. Gina’s research spans the study of collective security, feminist legal methodologies, gender and security, and the international law of the sea. Gina’s publications include The Law on the Use of Force: a Feminist Analysis (Routledge 2011) and Feminist Dialogues on International Law: successes, tensions, futures (Oxford University Press 2019). Gina’s current research engages ocean governance, the international law of the sea and queer feminist methodologies to consider the possibility for new legal routes to enhanced ocean and human protection. Recent publications include a chapter in Paige and O’Hara’s edited collection Queer Engagements with International Law: Times, Spaces, Imaginings and a chapter in Arvidsson and Jones’ edited collection International Law and Posthuman Theory, as well as co-authored articles in International Affairs (with Dr Jenna Sapiano and Dr Xianan Jin) and the Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies (with Dr Lucia Kula).
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