Speakers

Haugesund International Conference on Maritime Security, Naval Warfare, and the Law of the Sea, April 16th and 17th, 2024

Thomas Angell Bergh

Norway

Head of the Department of Operative Supervision at the Norwegian Maritime Authority.

Arne Willy Dahl

Norway

Former Judge Advocate General of Norway. Dahl is member of the San Remo Manual Steering Committee. Former president (2006-2012) of the International Society for Military Law and the Law of War. He is the author of several books and articles, including Handbook on the Laws of War (“Håndbok i militær folkerett”) (2008), The Oslo Manual on Select Topics of the Law of Armed Conflict (co-edited with Yoram Dinstein) (2020).

Geir Inge Davidsen

Norway

Norwegian Police (PST)

Bjørg Mathisen Døving

Norway

VP at Reach Remote in Reach Subsea. Her engineering acumen is backed by two decades of rich experience within the marine subsea offshore sector.Bjørg's portfolio encompasses a spectrum of expertise from diverse management roles.

Professor Magne Frostad

Norway

Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law, UiT The Arctic University of Norway. He studied in Norway, Sweden, England and Germany (PhD) and focuses on both domestic and international law – constitutional law, human rights, law of the sea, jus in bello, jus ad bellum, legal history and methodology. Among his publications we find a book on piracy, and he currently works on a book on naval graves.

Christian Grahl-Madsen

Norway

Norwegian advocate situated in Bergen Norway. Experience as a legal officer in the Norwegian Home Guard. Former member of The Home Guard Council and member of the working committee for eight years. He has been lecturing operational law in various parts of the Armed Forces. Eager team leader for the military academy cadets participating in the international competition in LOAC in San Remo.

Are Jacobsen

Norway

Cooperate Security Manager at Gassco AS. Jacobsen has worked for Gassco for 22 years, focusing on emergency preparedness, environment, projects, HSE and security. He worked as an advisor in the Coastal Authority from 1999-2002, and Seal hunt inspector, professional diver, and arctic researcher from 1995-1999. Gassco is responsible for safe and efficient transport of gas from the Norwegian continental shelf to Europe.

Hans Erik Lofthus

Norway

HSSE & QA Manager and Company Security Officer for Knutsen Group – Knutsen OAS Shipping. Experienced within shipping including commercial companies, the Norwegian Maritime Authority, The Royal Norwegian Navy and Coast Guard and The Norwegian Coastal Authority.

Dr Alexander Lott

Norway

Researcher at the Norwegian Centre for the Law of the Sea at the UiT The Arctic University of Norway. Alexander is also a lecturer of administrative law at the University of Tartu (Estonia). He is the author of the books “Hybrid Threats and the Law of the Sea: Use of Force and Discriminatory Navigational Restrictions in Straits” (Brill, 2022) and “The Estonian Straits: Exceptions to the Strait Regime of Innocent or Transit Passage” (Brill, 2018) as well as the editor and co-author of the anthology “Maritime Security Law in Hybrid Warfare” (forthcoming).

Lieutenant General (ret.) Morten Haga Lunde

Norway

Special Adviser to the Norwegian Ship Owners Association. Lunde has a long and distinguished career within in the Norwegian Armed Forces. He was the Director of the Norwegian Intelligence Service (NIS) from 2016-2020, and the head of the Norwegian Operational Headquarters (FOH) from 2013-2016.

Margaret Materna

United States

Civilian legal advisor in the Office of the Judge Advocate General of the United States Navy, National Security Law Division, serving at the Pentagon. In this capacity, she oversees the Division’s efforts to support the Fleets and advises the Judge Advocate General on international and operational law, including legal issues related to unmanned systems and artificial intelligence.

Sverre Meling

Norway

CoE, Maritime Forum, Western Norway. Meling is a historian and journalist with a particular interest for maritime history and industry.

Professor Fausto Pocar

Italy

Professor emeritus of International Law at the University of Milan. Member of the San Remo Manual Steering Committee, President of the International Institute of Humanitarian Law (Sanremo, Italy) and Former president of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (2005-2008).

Professor Sigmund Simonsen

Norway

Professor of maritime and military law at the Western Norway University of Applied Science and NTNU. He has various affiliations with the Norwegian Armed Forces. He was a professor at the Royal Norwegian Air Force Academy from 2012-2018. He is the author of several books and articles, including Maritime Safety and Security Law (“Skipssikkerhetsrett”) (2022), and The Legality of the Use of Armed Force in Peace, Crises and War (“Til forsvar av landet”) (2019) – both in Norwegian.

Professor Dale Stephens

Australia

CSM FAAL has over 20 years of experience as a Permanent Navy Legal Officer, with notable deployments in Timor and Iraq. His former role as Director of Operations and International Law in the Australian Defence Force, combined with Masters and Doctorate degrees from Harvard Law School, allows him to approach legal questions from a unique perspective of both practice and theory.

Commander Tor Ivar Strømmen

Norway

Commander Tor Ivar Strømmen (b. 1972) is a naval historian, researcher, and strategist specialising in seapower theory within coastal and small state contexts. With 15 years of operational experience in the Norwegian Navy, including prestigious training with the Royal Navy and US Navy, he now serves as a senior lecturer at the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy. Strømmen is actively involved in national and international research projects. He is also a respected public debater and commentator on naval affairs.

Commander Caroline Tuckett

Lead maritime legal adviser in the UK Permanent Joint Headquarters, advising the Joint Commander on matters of international and operational law. She has advised and published on the applicability of international maritime law to the military operation of unmanned vessels, and provided evidence to the House of Lords International Relations and Defence Committee on this subject.

Aleksander Valestrand

Norway

Senior Advisor at marine insurer Norwegian Hull Club's Loss Prevention and Emergency Response team. Before becoming part of Norwegian Hull Club, Aleksander worked for 15 years at Norway's national channel TV 2 as a journalist, editor and communications manager. He also has 10 years' experience from Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, where he worked with crisis management, internal communications and as media liaison

Commodore Kjell-Knut Aabrek

Norway

Commodore Kjell-Knut Aabrek has served ten years on a various Norwegian submarines, including three years as Commanding Officer. Captain Aabrek later held instructor and staff positions within the Submarine Service and Naval Academy. After a four-year NATO staff assignment in The Netherlands, he returned to the Submarine service as Deputy Commander and later as Commanding Officer of the Norwegian Submarine Service. He graduated from the Royal College of Defence Studies in 2022 and was promoted to Commodore and his current position as Chief of Staff Royal Norwegian Navy.

Modified 12.04.24