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 9

On this day in ...

... 1903 (105 years ago today), the parliament of France voted unanimously not to extend the vote to women. Just 6 days later the very same year, the Norwegian parliament would vote unanimously in favor of women's suffrage.

... 1906, Grace Brewster Murray was born in New York City. From an early age she demonstrated curiosity about how things worked -- took apart no fewer than 7 alarm clocks. Her parents inspired her to pursue her interest, and in 1928 she was graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Vassar College with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics. After earning a master's in math from Yale 2 years later, she married, began teaching math at Vassar, and earned her Ph.D. from Yale. Thirty-four years old when World War II broke out, Dr. Grace Murray Hopper (below left) enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve. She became a top Navy computer programmer, and is "credited with coining the term 'bug' in reference to a glitch in the machinery." At war's end, divorced and told to leave active duty, Hopper embarked on an illustrious career in computer programming -- among her achievements was development of the computer language COBOL. In the mid-1960s she became the 1st Naval Reserve woman to be recalled to active duty, achieving the rank of Rear Admiral in 1985. Upon her death in 1992 she was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. In the late 1990s the destroyer above right, U.S.S. Hopper (DDG-70), nicknamed "Amazing Grace," was named after her. She's been nominated as the transnational foremother (now on our list at right) of oceans law expert and IntLawGrrls' loyal blogreader Caitlyn Antrim, who cites 2 favorite Hopper quotes:

'It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission.'

and

'A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what a ship is built for.'