Home Institution:        University of the Philippines

Host Institution:          US Naval War College

Award Name:             Fulbright Advanced Research and University Lecturing Award

Discipline:                   Law

Award Year:                2022

Jay obtained his Bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and Law from the University of the Philippines, and Master of Marine Management and Doctor of Laws from Dalhousie University (Canada). Since 1997 he has specialized in maritime affairs, having worked on diverse fields spanning coastal management, seafaring, shipping, fisheries, maritime boundaries, marine environmental law, and the Law of the Sea.

In the past decade, his research has focused on the complex issues surrounding the South China Sea, particularly in providing independent academic commentary and insight for a decade of tumultuous developments in the maritime and territorial disputes. He also served as a Legal Advisor of the government in its successful bid for recognition of the Philippines’ continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles by the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, and the designation of the Tubbataha Reef Natural Park Particularly Sensitive Sea Area by the International Maritime Organization.

As a Fulbright Senior Fellow, Jay will spend 4 months to work with the Stockton Center for International Law and other highly specialized research institutes of the US Naval War College to look into the challenges of new, emerging, and evolving technologies, means, and methods of maritime competition and coercion that lately have been witnessed with increasing frequency in the Indo-Pacific Region. He will also learn about advanced teaching and learning techniques for maritime strategic thinking and operational decision-making and adapt such techniques for application in the Philippine academic and policy-making environment.

When not doing research, Jay enjoys reading and watching science-fiction, and took an interest in cartooning, comics, and animation in his youth. He sometimes drew upon these skills in his presentations and lectures in the earlier phase of his career, and he hopes to return to and enhance them to tap the new media of communication enabled by information and communication technologies to enable his advocacies to reach out to a much wider and more engaged public.