Law of the Sea Institute
Program Directors
David D. Caron
445 Boalt Hall
510-642-7249
ddcaron@law.berkeley.edu
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Harry N. Scheiber
360 Boalt Hall
510-643-9788
hscheiber@law.berkeley.edu
Jon M. Van Dyke (1943-2011)
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The Law of the Sea Institute and the entire community of legal scholars globally have lost a colleague of great distinction in our field. We regret to take note of the death of Professor Jon M. Van Dyke, member of the Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaii, faculty and a central figure in all the scholarly and organizational activities of the LOSI. He passed away on November 29 while participating in the LOSI conference recently held in Wollongong, Australia.
His contributions to the scholarly literature in ocean law, U.S. and international environmental law, U.S. constitutional law, indigenous rights, and international human rights have been of far-reaching influence in all these fields. His pro bono litigation, in collaboration with his wife Sherry Broder, an eminent graduate of Berkeley Law and former president of the Hawaii State Bar, has been of exceptional importance in the pursuit of restitution for victims of human rights violations and in litigation on behalf of Native Hawaiian claims. During the time LOSI was based at the University of Hawaii, he was an officer and leading spirit of the organization; and in the last decade, while LOSI has been based at UC Berkeley, we have depended upon him for his invaluable intellectual contributions, his unstinting devotion to the ocean law field, and his contributions to our publications both as author and editor. He was always generous with his time, energy, and wise counsel. During Spring 2011 semester, he taught at Berkeley Law, and he gave presentations of his recent research at the LOSI co-sponsored conference in Istanbul in September and as co-speaker with the LOSI co-directors at two international conferences in Seoul, Korea.
His death is an enormous loss not only to Sherry and their children, to whom he was so devoted, but also to his friends and colleagues. The many students and alumni whose lives he enriched by dint of his gift as a teacher and his unfailing kindness and devotion join in mourning this difficult loss to us all.
Harry N. Scheiber and David D. Caron
Co-Directors, LOSI
A public memorial service will be held on January 14, 2012 and a fund is being established at the Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaii. Detailed biographical data on Professor Van Dyke, memorial tributes and photographs, and information on the endowed fund that will carry his name and honor his work are available on his School's website.
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The Law of the Sea Institute (LOSI) is an international consortium of scholars that has played a major part in studies of ocean law since the 1970s. LOSI was previously based at the University of Hawaii and the University of Miami before being transferred to UC Berkeley in 2002. It is now a program of the Institute for Legal Research. At Berkeley, LOSI has built on a long tradition of studies in ocean law that began with Professor Stefan Riesenfeld's work in the late 1930s.
Research in this field at Berkeley has been supported with assistance from university, foundation, and governmental sponsors, such as the California Sea Grant Program, the UC Marine Council, the Pacific Rim Research Program, and the Ford Foundation. In addition, there has been the coordination of activities and varying types of support from other institutions, including the University of Washington and the Fridtjof Nansen Institute (Norway). From 2006-2008, LOSI joined with Inha University (Korea) to co-sponsor and co-organize a three-year series of major international conferences on ocean law and policy, held in Berkeley and Seoul.
Since its inception, LOSI has published a distinguished series of conference proceedings and books on a range of subjects dealing with ocean policy and the law of the sea. This tradition has continued at Berkeley with Bringing New Law to Ocean Waters (Brill/Martinus Nijhoff); "Multilateralism and International Ocean-Resources Law," published as a symposium in the San Diego International Law Journal; Maritime Boundary Disputes, Settlement Processes, and the Law of the Sea, edited by Seoung-Yong Hong and Jon Van Dyke (Brill/Martinus Nijhoff); and The Oceans in the Nuclear Age: Legacies and Risks, edited by David Caron and Harry Scheiber (Brill/Martinus Nijhoff).
Contact information
Law of the Sea Institute
381 Boalt Hall
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-7200
Phone: 510-642-5125
Fax: 510-643-2698
Email: losi@law.berkeley.edu