The 1982 Law Of The Sea Convention And The Regulation Of Offshore Renewable Energy Activities Within National Jurisdiction

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.

One of the main challenges of our time is to be able to guarantee energy supply at a reasonable price. Policy makers, international institutions and the private sector increasingly look to the oceans as a significant source of energy. The Law of the Sea provides the legal framework within which any maritime activity is performed and strikes a balance between the multiple activities that can take place simultaneously in the same maritime zone. This volume addresses some of the main legal challenges raised by the expansion of the ocean energy sector and its consequences for the relevant international normative and institutional framework. Some of the major themes explored include energy sources and the competition for marine space, energy security, private actors and corporate social responsibility, fragmentation or integration, evolution and reinforcement of international law and liability.

The 1982 Law of the Sea Convention at 30: Successes, Challenges and New Agendas offers twenty essays by renowned Law of the Sea scholars, published to mark the 30th Anniversary of the adoption of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The book highlights some of the strengths of the legal regime established by the Convention, and reviews some of the more significant lacunae in the Convention regime. Recognizing the significant changes that have taken place in scientific knowledge and political agendas in the thirty years since 1982, it reviews the challenges that these new agendas pose to the Convention regime.

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.

These commentaries are based almost entirely on the formal and informal documentation of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III, 1973-1982), coupled, where necessary, with the personal knowledge of editors, contributors, or reviewers, many of whom were principal negotiators or UN personnel who participated in the Conference.

These commentaries are based almost entirely on the formal and informal documentation of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III, 1973-1982), coupled, where necessary, with the personal knowledge of editors, contributors, or reviewers, many of whom were principal negotiators or UN personnel who participated in the Conference.

This Supplement to the seven-volume series United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982, A Commentary, prepared at the University of Virginia’s Center for Oceans Law and Policy, contains additional primary documents and materials directly related to the Convention.

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.