On July 7-9 2025, Sean D. Murphy, the Manatt/Ahn Professor of International Law, provided three lectures on the law of the sea at the Seoul Academy of International Law in the Republic of Korea.
Each year, the Academy convenes about 40 government diplomats, lawyers, and judges from across East Asia for a two-week series of lectures on various topics of international law. Professor Murphy’s lectures, identified the basic international rules and institutions governing the oceans, but also applied them to difficult contemporary problems, including as rising sea levels due to climate change and the challenges in maritime boundary delimitation.
Professor Murphy also provided a lecture on July 11 at the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Seoul to a group of government diplomats and lawyers, as well as Korean scholars. The lecture, entitled “International Law before and after Pax Americana,” addressed the U.S. role over the twentieth century in promoting a world order based on international rules and institutions, underwritten by U.S. economic strength and military power, followed by a decline during this century in the United States playing such a role, with consequential effects for international law and institutions.
