User:Bo Dongyu/sandbox

Gao Zhiguo (simplified chinese: 高之国; traditional chinese: 高之國; pinyin: Gāo Zhīguó), born 7 July 1955, in Changzhi of Shanxi province of China. Gao is a professor of international law. He serves as a judge of International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), and he is also an administrative official of China.

Education
Gao obtained Bachelor of Arts from Jilin University in Changchun of China in 1980. Then, he attended China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing of China, and got Master of law degree in 1983. In 1986, Gao obtained LL.M from the University of Washington in Seattle of USA. Then, he got Doctor of Juridical Science from Dalhousie University in Halifax of Canada in 1993, and Post-Doctorate in Law form East-West Centre in Hawaii of USA in 1994.

Professorship
In 1980, Gao served as a lecturer in Shanxi University of Coal Science and Technology. From 1994 to 1997, he taught at the University of Dundee in the United Kingdom. And from 2001 to date, Gao has been working as an Adjunct Professor in many universities, such as Tsinghua University, Ocean University of China, Xiamen University. In 2015, he was elected as the Dean of Law School of Hainan University.

Political Career
Gao is a member of the Communist Party of China and a deputy to the National People’s Congress of China. He served as the Deputy Administrator to China Institute for Marine Development Strategies and the Deputy Head to Legal Office of State Oceanic Administration in the late 1980s. From 1997 to date, he has been a Senior Member of Council on Security and Cooperation in Asia-Pacific. Since 1999, he has been the Administrator to China Institute for Marine Development Strategies.

Judgeship at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea
International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) is a judicial organ for dealing with disputes related to international maritime law.

Gao was elected as a judge of the ITLOS on January 30, 2008 (term of office: 2001-2011). On January 30, 2018, Special Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was held in New York. 137 of the 155 member states attended the meeting and voted. Gao was the only candidate of China, obtaining 136 votes out of 137 ballots cast, with one abstention.

Gao was re-elected as a judge of ITLOS on the 21st Meeting States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, receiving 141 votes out of 149 ballots cast. The term of office is from 1 October 2011 for nine-year term.

Representative Publications
Gao has several publications, mainly in the areas of international law of the sea and international petroleum law. Here are some publications for reference.

Books
《国际海洋法发展趋势研究》 Studies of the New Trends of International Law of the Sea (2007)

Environmental Regulation of Oil and Gas (1998)

Articles
South China Sea: Turning Suspicion into Mutual Understanding and Cooperation (2005)

The Scope and Principles of Maritime Cooperation in Asia and the Pacific (2002)

The Legal Concept and Aspects of Joint Development in International Law (1998)

Awards
In 1997, Gao won the Jefferey Willowboughby Prize for excellence in natural resources and energy law research. In the same year, he was listed as renowned lawyers for world energy and natural resources. In 2011, he won the National Outstanding Achievements and Contributions Award of the Chinese Government.