There are various environmental and legal challenges arising from offshore renewable energy activities which were not foreseen at the time of the negotiation of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). This book explores how UNCLOS has evolved to adapt to these new challenges through legal mechanisms and examines what gaps may remain and how they should be filled. The book highlights the process of normative reinforcement in the regulation of offshore renewable energy activities whilst maintaining the fundamental balance of interests between the coastal State and other States.

With advances in technology and maritime transport, human use of the ocean now extends beyond the traditional activities of navigation and fishing. Emerging activities such as bioprospecting, deep seabed mineral and hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation, offshore renewable energy developments and marine scientific probes of deep sea areas challenge the applicability of maritime law and policy in new ways. This handbook examines current regulatory and enforcement instruments and mechanisms for different sectors of maritime activity. Covering various jurisdictions, its specially commissioned chapters are authored by some of the world’s foremost authorities on maritime law, and offer unique perspectives on maritime law, policy and practice. This highly relevant collection is organised into four parts: • International Law Considerations in Maritime Regulation and Enforcement • Role of States and other International Actors in Maritime Regulation and Enforcement • Regulation and Enforcement in Different Maritime Sectors • Current Issues and Future Challenges This comprehensive reference work will be of interest to scholars and students of maritime law, practitioners and non-lawyers interested in the regulation of offshore areas, as well as policy-makers.

The lack of international conventional law governing the operational aspects of continental shelf activity may be characterized as unfinished business of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Convention, adopted in 1982, generally addressed the issue but did not consider more detailed development of the legal regime for the continental shelf. In The Regulation of Continental Shelf Development: Rethinking International Standards, leading experts from around the world identify and explore a multitude of unresolved legal concerns related to the continental shelf. The current state of continental shelf activities is explored through the following lenses: • Contemporary uses, including an overview on offshore wind energy in the EU, an analysis of the use of submarine cables under UNCLOS, and a discussion of the varied potential for mining marine materials; • Emerging challenges, such as ISA seabed mining standards, the recent ITLOS decision regarding the Bay of Bengal, and the role of the IMO in establishing safety standards for transboundary effects of oil pollution for offshore platforms; • Comparative best practices in environmental regulation; • Probabilistic risk assessment, with a thorough definition of PRA and a critical examination of continental shelf disasters; • Decommissioning offshore installations and structures, including an overview of the global regime as particularly provided in Articles 60(3) and 80 of UNCLOS; • Liability and compensation; and finally, • Unfinished business on UNCLOS III. The varied voices of experts collected within The Regulation of Continental Shelf Development: Rethinking International Standards offer a timely understanding of past, present, and future issues related to the continental shelf. The volume is a must-read for all those interested in environmental law and the law of the sea.

The Law of the Seabed reviews the most pressing legal questions raised by the use and protection of natural resources on and underneath the world’s seabeds. While barely accessible, the seabed plays a major role in the Earth’s ecological balance. It is both a medium and a resource, and is central to the blue economy. New uses and new knowledge about seabed ecosystems, and the risks of disputes due to competing interests, urge reflection on which regulatory approaches to pursue. The regulation of ocean activities is essentially sector-based, and the book puts in parallel the international and national regimes for seabed mining, oil and gas, energy generation, bottom fisheries, marine genetic resources, carbon sequestration and maritime security operations, both within and beyond the national jurisdiction. The book contains seven parts respectively addressing the definition of the seabed from a multidisciplinary perspective, the principles of jurisdiction delimitation under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the regimes for use of non-living, living and marine biodiversity resources, the role of state and non-state actors, the laying and removal of installations, the principles for sustainable and equitable use (common heritage of mankind, precaution, benefit sharing), and management tools to ensure coexistence between activities as well as the protection of the marine environment.

The Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive (Directive 2001/42/EC) (SEA Directive) has been a lurking legal presence in EU and UK environmental law. Now, just over a decade since its implementation, the impacts of the SEA Directive are beginning to be felt throughout the UK, and more broadly throughout the European Union as a whole. These developments have been driven both by the expansive interpretation of the Directive's scope by the Court of Justice of the European Union and by a slow learning process about how this new type of regulation should be legally interpreted and applied. This edited collection is the first volume to reflect comprehensively on the emerging legal identity of SEA in the EU and UK. With contributions addressing the impact of the SEA Directive on the fields of town and country planning and European environmental law, the book is a comprehensive analysis of all aspects of the Directive, from its history and scope, to its impact on governmental policy and its implications in practice. The volume both reflects on key cases such as Case C-567/10 Inter-Environnement Bruxelles and HS2, and looks forward, as it considers and projects future legal implications of the SEA Directive. Written by a blend of distinguished academics and leading practitioners, it provides an in-depth critique and rounded appreciation of both the immediate practical effects of SEA and its wider impact on European and UK environmental law.

Explores how the law of the sea can develop in support of the objectives of the United Nations climate regime.

This book introduces non-specialist readers to the history of how human societies have sought to control, use and exploit our oceans, seas and shorelines over time in different geographical and cultural contexts. The Unruly Ocean examines the development of the modern international legal regime – the law of the sea, maritime law, marine environmental and pollution law, fisheries regulation, and underwater cultural heritage law – and considers how effective these laws have been in addressing the many challenges facing marine and coastal environments ranging from piracy and war to oil spills and the extraction of marine resources. It concludes by discussing the socio-ecological crises facing the world’s oceans, seas and shorelines, and explores current ideas for reimagining a legal regime that restores the health of our oceanic realm and offers a more holistic, transboundary, rights-based approach to ocean governance. This book will be of value to law and non-law undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as research scholars and other educated audiences interested in a legal history of the world’s oceans, seas and shorelines.