Frontiers in International Environmental Law is a collection of essays that showcases how law and legal scholarship can responded to challenges to our oceans and climate governance regimes.
Oceans The New Frontier explores how human community insistently pushes the oceans' limits, seeking to exploit all of their varied resources minerals, fisheries, fuels and genetic material. The ocean frontier is constantly being redefined by new discoveries, technologies, national strategies, and ecological imperatives. Increasing dependence of humanity on the resources of the oceans has blurred the boundaries between the mainland and oceans.As humanity's footprint extends, oceans are seeing intense conflicts between actors and issues. The book questions the ability of global governance to regulate access to resources and services provided by the oceans so as to protect the ocean ecosystems. The chapters show how the global governance system has not been adequately responsive while in many cases local initiatives have contributed the solutions. Special sites, like sea-ports, can provide levers for action.Oceans The New Frontier is part of a series of annual publications on sustainable development (A Planet for Life) prepared under the scientific leadership of leading figures in the field of sustainable development.
Praise for the previous edition: “A complete overview of the subject which does not intimidate the reader but rather spurns interest and understanding in the subject.” European Energy and Environmental Law Review “...(the book is) scholarly yet accessible and very readable; thoroughly recommended.” Law Institute Journal Description The law of the sea provides for the regulation, management and governance of the ocean spaces that cover over two-thirds of the Earth's surface. This book provides a comprehensive assessment of the foundational principles of the law of the sea, a critical overview of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and an analysis of subsequent developments including many bilateral, regional, and global agreements that supplement the Convention. The third edition of this acclaimed text has been thoroughly revised and updated, and now incorporates a dedicated chapter on natural and artificial islands. All of the main areas of the law of the sea are addressed including the foundations and sources of the law, the nature and extent of the maritime zones, the delimitation of overlapping maritime boundaries, the place of archipelagic and other special states in the law of the sea, navigational rights and freedoms, military activities at sea, marine scientific research, and marine resource and conservation issues such as fisheries, marine environmental protection and dispute settlement. The book also takes stock of contemporary oceans governance issues not adequately addressed by the Convention. Overarching challenges facing the law of the sea are considered, including how new maritime security initiatives can be reconciled with traditional navigational rights and freedoms, the need for stronger legal and policy responses to protect the global ocean environment from climate change and ocean acidification, and work on a new agreement for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction.