Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SUSTAINABLEOCEAN (Accommodating New Interests at Sea: Legal Tools for Sustainable Ocean Governance)

Teaser

Economic activities at sea are rapidly multiplying. There are the traditional sectors of oil and gas, and fisheries, which are expanding. Beyond that, there are new economic activities. Consider, for instance, renewable energy technologies. Offshore wind farms are now located...

Summary

Economic activities at sea are rapidly multiplying. There are the traditional sectors of oil and gas, and fisheries, which are expanding. Beyond that, there are new economic activities. Consider, for instance, renewable energy technologies. Offshore wind farms are now located in shallow waters close to the coast. But soon the development of wind turbines will allow to move them into remote locations. And, of course, deep seabed mining. Deep seabed mining is supposed provide up to 5% of the world’s minerals by 2020; up to 10% by 2030. While planning any maritime activity, decision-makers need take into account a series of interests: ensuring the continuity of the relevant economic activities; protecting the marine environment; mitigating of climate change effects; guaranteeing energy efficiency and security; and protecting the rights of the local communities.
 
When it comes to international law, it is crucial to note that these interests go hand in hand with different fields of the law. The interests and fields of law may be competing. But they may also reinforce each other. Even if legal regulation is fragmented, it is all the same necessary to take all interests into account at the same time. This means cutting across fragmented fields of the law. This means regime interaction.

From the study of selected maritime activities and their legal framework, the SUSTAINABLEOCEAN project wants to identify patterns of regime interaction and assess their impact on the different maritime uses. The project seeks to answer the research question: how can the law strike a balance between competing interests at sea and contribute to the sustainable use of the ocean?

While the law pertaining to ocean governance is fragmented into several different regimes, the project begins by analyzing three legal frameworks which are most relevant to the offshore industry: the law of the sea, climate change law, and energy law. It focuses on the operation of the offshore industry and on the competing interests which have influenced the respective fields of law. The research project strives to contribute to the debate on regime interaction through an analysis of that interaction before tensions or conflict rise. It aims to facilitate the realization that competing interests do not always generate tension, and may often benefit in a mutual way.

The project has two main objectives. First: To develop a new line of research that is based on a theory of interest- and regime-interaction in ocean governance. This will help to better understand and explain: how the relevant legal frameworks interact; how to solve possible tensions between the legal frameworks; how energy and climate change law are re-shaping ocean governance. Second: To develop legal tools (namely briefs, recommendations, reports, etc.) that will assist stakeholders (governments, industry, NGOs, local communities, etc.) to sustainably use the oceans.

Work performed

\"Seline Trevisanut, the PI had c-authored, together with Natalie Dobson (University of Utrecht, Netherlands) a paper titled “Climate change and energy in the Arctic Ocean: The role of the EU” which has been accepted for publication in a special issue on ‘The EU as A Global Actor in The Arctic Ocean’ of The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law (IJMCL, Nijhoff) and edited by Claudia Cinelli (University of Tromso, Norway). The paper is forthcoming in 2017. Seline and the PhD student Giannopoulos are working on a joint paper on ‘Investment Protection in Offshore Energy Production and the Bright Side of Regime Interaction,’ which was presented at the Frankfurt Investment Law Workshop (10-11 March 2017) and will be published in a special issue of Journal of World Investment and Trade (JWIT, Brill). The PhD student Rozemarijn Roland Holst wrote a review essay of the book \'Law of the Sea: UNCLOS as a Living Treaty\' (BIICL 2016), edited by Richard Barnes and Jill Barrett. The review essay has been accepted for publication in the journal Transnational Environmental Law (TEL, Cambridge University Press). Rozemarijn Roland Holst is also co-authoring with a PI a paper on \"\"The Deep Seabed in the Anthropocene: Environmental Integrity and the New Draft Regulations on Exploitation of the Area\"\" to be presented at the conference \"\"Human Sea Programme International Conference 2018, Towards the new law of the Oceans\"\" (Nantes, 15-16 October). The PI and the two PhD students presented the intermediary results of the projects in many conferences and workshops.

The research team organized the workshop \"\"Regime Interaction in Ocean Governance: Problems, theories and methods\"\" (Utrecht, 19-20 April 2018). The aim of workshop was twofold: 1) dissecting the concept of ocean governance in order to have a better understanding of the regime interaction taking place therein; 2) testing one of the premises of the project: to facilitate the realization that competing interests and objectives, buttressed by the different regimes, do not always generate tension, and may often benefit in a mutual way. The workshop was a success. All speakers engaged with the project\'s topic and approach, gave very interesting contributions and useful feedback. It also widened our network and enhanced our visibility.

The project database was developed, mainly by the junior researcher, Ms Nina Mileva. The database is a significant achievement for three reasons: firstly, it creates an online research platform which brings together academic sources related to the three main dimensions of the project. This makes it the first database of its kind, as previously these sources could only be found in individual databases or scattered on multiple platforms. Secondly, it strengthens the position of the SUSTAINABLEOCEAN project as a meeting point for these three fields, by being accessible via the website of the project, and by being the research tool which provides relevant sources. Finally, it provides a platform where the research performed by members of the team during the project can be showcased and disseminated to multiple audiences.

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Final results

The project aims to develop a new line of research based on a theory of interest- and regime interaction in ocean governance. The concept of interest in international law has been analysed and presented by the PI in different fora and specifically during the first workshop organized by the research team. In this setting, very useful feedback was given by experts in different fields of international law and international relations. The idea of constructing a theory based on interests to explained regime interaction in international law has been so far well received. The theory is still in developing and the PI will need the remaining research period to elaborate it. Considering the results achieved so far, the PI is confident to reach this objective by the end of the project.
Several publications are forthcoming and a book proposal for an edited volume has been submitted for consideration to an international publisher. Moreover, the research database is about to be made publicly available.

Website & more info

More info: https://www.uu.nl/en/research/sustainable-ocean.