maritime law

Georgia Law Professor Desirée LeClercq participates in UC Berkeley Law webinar on gender-based violence in the maritime industry

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Desirée LeClercq served as a panelist in the virtual discussion “Inequalities and Violence at Sea.” This panel, moderated by Furaha Joy Sekai Saungweme and Costanza Hermanin, was part of a webinar series hosted by the Gender Justice and Harassment Working Group of UC Berkeley Law’s Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-Discrimination Law. The series was launched in recognition of the International Day for Women in Maritime, an annual observance on May 18 that highlights the contributions of women across the maritime industry.

LeClercq discussed her recent article, “Gender-Based Violence and Harassment at Sea”, which examines the Maritime Labour Convention (2006). She was joined by panelist Tim Springett, Policy Director of the United Kingdom Chamber of Shipping, as they explored the gendered dimensions of labor, safety, and inclusion in the maritime sector.

LeClercq joined the University of Georgia School of Law in 2024 as an assistant professor. She teaches International Trade and Workers Rights, International Labor Law, International Law and U.S. Labor Law. This semester, LeClercq is overseeing the International Law Colloquium, a for-credit course designed to introduce students to international economic law through engagement with scholars in the international legal field. She also serves as a faculty co-director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center and as the faculty adviser for the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law.

Georgia Law Professor Desirée LeClercq publishes in Cornell International Law Journal 

University of Georgia School of Law Professor Desirée LeClercq recently published an article, “Gender-Based Violence at Sea,” in the Cornell International Law Journal. The article stems from LeClercq’s previous contribution to Cornell’s Transnational Labor Law Conference as a conference co-organizer.

LeClercq’s article highlights the pervasive gender-based violence and harassment that female seafarers endure at sea. Furthermore, LeClercq argues the International Labour Organization (ILO) has failed to properly protect workers despite the protections intended by the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006.

Below is an abstract from the article:

“This Symposium contribution assesses the ability of international law to evolve to offer essential protections for workers in an increasingly globalized world. It focuses on protections for women seafarers, specifically around gender-based violence and harassment on board vessels. Even though it is the world’s oldest transnational sector, seafaring remains overwhelmingly male-dominated. Consequently, international law was not initially conceived with women seafarers in mind. Now that women have broken into the maritime profession, they count on international law to evolve in kind. Notwithstanding, they continue to face sexist, if not violent, workplaces, and report high incidents of gender-based violence and harassment at sea.

The international organization responsible for adopting and supervising protections for workers, the International Labour Organization (ILO), has long prioritized the special needs of seafarers. Its Maritime Labor Convention, 2006, promised to ensure holistic protections for all women and men at sea and to quickly adapt with evolving sectoral challenges. A close look at the prevalence of gender-based violence and harassment at sea shows, however, that the ILO’s bureaucratic pathologies and interinstitutional processes preclude it from accomplishing that mission. The ILO’s failure to quickly respond to mounting evidence of that violence and harassment has broad implications for international law, which must absorb and respond to transnational work’s dynamic and fluctuating demands to remain useful and relevant.”

LeClercq joined the University of Georgia School of Law in 2024 as an assistant professor. She teaches International Trade and Workers Rights, International Labor Law, International Law and U.S. Labor Law. This semester, LeClercq is overseeing the International Law Colloquium, a for-credit course designed to introduce students to international economic law through engagement with scholars in the international legal field. She also serves as a faculty co-director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center and as the faculty adviser for the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law.

UGA Professor Kalyani Ramnath named 2024 ACLS Fellow

Kalyani Ramnath, Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the Franklin College of Arts & Sciences and Assistant Professor (by courtesy) at the University of Georgia School of Law, is a recipient of an American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Fellowship for her project, “Adrift in the Indian Ocean: Abandonment, Law, and the Making of Maritime Sovereignty.”

From Ramnath’s abstract:

“‘Adrift in the Indian Ocean’ explores how and why empires and nation-states looked beyond land-based territorial conquests and claimed maritime spaces. It is a history of sovereignty and placemaking set in the Indian Ocean from the 18th century onwards, one where imperial officials and scientists confronted the differing views of space held by maritime and coastal communities. Legal fictions such as the ‘territorial sea’ or ‘historic waters’ emerged from these encounters, showing how oceanic space patrolled for security was eventually enclosed as property. Exploring key sites looking out to the ocean from south Indian coasts, ‘Adrift’ shows how people and places once abandoned are dredged up during present-day legal disputes over maritime boundaries in the Indian Ocean.“

This fellowship follows Dr. Ramnath’s publication of her first book, Boats in a Storm: Law, Migration, and Decolonization in South and Southeast Asia, 1942–1962, with Stanford University Press. To read more about this publication, please click here.

Ramnath received her Ph.D. in history from Princeton University in 2018, and was a Prize Fellow in Economics, History, and Politics at the Center for History and Economics at Harvard University from 2018 – 2021. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in arts and law (B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) (JD equivalent) from the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) and a master’s degree in law (LL.M.) from the Yale Law School.