Guest Blogger: Caitlyn Antrim

It's IntLawGrrls' great pleasure to welcome Caitlyn Antrim (left) as today's guest blogger.
Caitlyn's the executive director of the Rule of Law Committee for the Oceans and publisher of the "Ocean Law Daily," a newsletter focused on the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, its relation to U.S. national interests, and prospects for approval by the U.S. Senate. She discusses those prospects in her guest post below.
Caitlyn began studying law of the sea under Harvard Law School Professors Louis Sohn and Richard Baxter at the same time she was earning the professional degree of Environmental Engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She credits this dual track for preparing her for translating and mediating between lawyers and engineers, developed and developing countries, and other cultural clashes in international ocean and environmental policy debates.
After graduation she joined the government, representing the Commerce Department and NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, on the U.S. delegation to the Law of the Sea Conference. Since then, she has served on delegations and secretariats at the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development and the Convention on Drought and Desertification. She's also worked for the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, the American Academy of Diplomacy, and the National Academy of Sciences, all the while keeping involved in the progress of the law of the sea convention.
Caitlyn has published articles on law of the sea, strategic minerals, negotiation theory and practice and, most recently, the emerging regime for the Arctic. A loyal blogreader, Caitlyn nominated an IntLawGrrls transnational foremother years ago: Dr. Grace Murray Hopper (right) (photo credit), a Navy officer who developed the computer language COBOL.
Heartfelt welcome!

On December 4

On this day in ...
... 1947, Dr. Jane Lubchenco was born in Denver. Following undergraduate studies at Colorado College, she earned a Ph.D. at Harvard, and eventually moved to Corvallis, Oregon, where she became the Wayne and Gladys Valley Professor of Marine Biology and Oregon State University Distinguished Professor of Zoology. Among her honors have been a 1993 MacArthur Fellowship, the 1997-98 Presidency of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and, as of March of this year, service as the 1st woman to lead the United States' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, holding the title of Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere. (credit for photo of Vice President Joe Biden swearing in Lubchenco) An environmental scientist and marine ecologist who's focused her research on issues related to biodiversity, climate change, sustainability science and the state of the oceans, Lubchenco told The New York Times that at NOAA she planned to set up a longterm climate information service and to combat overfishing.

(Prior December 4 posts are here and here.)

On December 28

On this day in ...

... 1973 (35 years ago today), U.S. President Richard M. Nixon signed into law the Endangered Species Act. It lists 2 categories of protected species, "threatened" and "endangered," and empowered 2 agencies, the Fish and Wildlife Service (logo at right) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service (NOAA), to implement protections. "In July of 2008, there were a total of 1,238 threatened or endangered animals protected under the act; and a total of 747 threatened or endangered plants protected under the act."

... 1522, a daughter, Margaret, was born out of wedlock to Charles V, then the Holy Roman Emperor, and Johanna Maria von der Gheest, a servant of a Flemish nobleman. Raised by aunts who were governors of the Netherlands, Margaret (left) -- known as Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Parma, Regent of the Netherlands -- governed the Netherlands in the name of her brother until her resignation in 1567. The Roman Catholic regent's rule was marked by erratic treatment of heretics.