IBDMAR has completed the individual technical evaluation phase of the first edition of IBDMAR Thesis and Dissertation Award. Six papers proceed to the final judgment: three doctoral theses and three master’s dissertations.
The contest was instituted by Ordinance No. 03/2026 and governed by Notice of May 17, 2026, open to theses and dissertations defended in 2025 in stricto sensu graduate programs recognized by the Ministry of Education. Of the nine applications received, eight were approved.
Each approved work was examined by three evaluators, within a body of ten professors and researchers designated by Ordinance No. 07/2026. The distribution observed the compatibility between the evaluator’s specialty and the object of the work, the ability to read in the language in which it was written and the rules of impediment and suspicion of the Regulation, which exclude from the analysis who guided the research, participated in its board or maintains a link with the program in which it was defended.
The opinions followed the six criteria of Article 11 of Regulation: originality and innovation of the theme, scientific relevance and impact for the Law of the Sea, methodological rigor, contribution to public policies, maritime governance, defense of national sovereignty, protection of human dignity or conservation of the marine environment, quality of the writing and structure of the work and potential for internationalization and interdisciplinary dialogue. The individual notes and opinions are confidential, pursuant to Articles 12, §4, and 22 of the Regulation.
The finalists appear below in alphabetical order, with no correspondence with the ranking obtained.
Category Doctoral Thesis
Adriana Isabelle B. Sá Leitão Di Pasquale — The Development of the Global Governance for Marine Plastic Pollution: Fulfilling Legal Gaps to Face the Ocean Emergency? (Federal University of Ceará, PhD under cotutelage with the University of Pisa)
Carolina Vicente Cesetti — The application of the principle of integration aiming at the normative effectiveness of environmental protection in marine protected areas located in SEZs (University of Brasília, Graduate Program in Law)
Lucas Sarmento Pimenta — Non-refoulement: the responsibility of the Brazilian State in the protection of refugee maritime “stowaways” (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, National Law School)
Master’s Dissertation Category
Cecília Rosário Assis dos Santos Gonçalves — Regulation and Implication of Post-World War II Chemical Weapons Disposal at Sea: A Baltic Sea Case Study (Naval War School, Professional Master’s Degree in Maritime Studies)
Emerson Reginaldo Caetano — The Legal Implications of Brazil’s Submission to the Continental Shelf Limits Commission on the Elevation of the Rio Grande: Functional Sovereignty and Oceanic Justice in the Law of the Sea (Federal University of Rio Grande, Graduate Program in Law and Social Justice)
Jordana Isse — Marine pollution by microplastics and the impacts on human health: environmental legal challenges from the perspective of sustainable consumption (University of Caxias do Sul, Graduate Program in Law)
The themes measure what recent Brazilian production has achieved: plastic pollution and global ocean governance, marine protected areas in exclusive economic zones, protection of clandestine refugees on board, submerged chemical weapons liabilities, outer limits of the continental shelf and microplastics in the food chain.
The next step is up to the Judging Committee, which the IBDMAR Presidency will designate by ordinance, with three members for each category. It is up to her to choose the winning works and, if she deems it appropriate, to recommend honorable mentions. The names will be announced during the IBDMAR Congress.
In addition to the award to the authors, the contest provides for a certificate to the graduate program with identification of the advisor, institutional disclosure of the works and eventual publication by a partner publisher of the Institute.
IBDMAR thanks the authors who submitted their research and the evaluators who dedicated their time to the analysis of the works.
