New Knowledge and Changing Circumstances in the Law of the Sea

During the four decades that have passed since the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was negotiated, there has been considerable advancement in the knowledge of a number of important issues addressed in the Convention. Among those issues are marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, including marine genetic resources; the continental shelf, including seafloor highs, and its outer limits; and deep seabed mineral resources. At the same time, as a consequence of global warming, fundamental changes are taking place in many areas related to the law of the sea. In particular, sea level is rising globally, which may affect baselines, maritime limits and boundaries of coastal States.

New Knowledge and Changing Circumstances in the Law of the Sea, edited by Tomas Heidar, which includes twenty-two Chapters by prominent legal and scientific experts, focuses on these critical developments, the challenges they pose to the existing legal framework, and the various ways in which States are addressing these challenges.

Tomas Heidar is Judge of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and Director of the Law of the Sea Institute of Iceland. He is author of numerous writings and publications and co-edited, for example, Legal and Scientific Aspects of Continental Shelf Limits (Martinus Nijhoff, 2004), Law, Science and Ocean Management (Martinus Nijhoff, 2007) and Changes in the Arctic Environment and the Law of the Sea (Martinus Nijhoff, 2010).

"New Knowledge and Changing Circumstances in the Law of the Sea is an impressive collection of scholarly contributions from leading legal and scientific experts on the challenges and opportunities presented by new scientific and technical developments on a range of ‘hot’ topics in the international law of the sea...the book aims to address the question ‘how does the law of the sea adapt to new knowledge and changing circumstances?’ Divided up into no less than eight parts, with 22 chapters, this compilation provides a valuable examination of issues across a broad spectrum of topics."

- Mitchell Lennan, PhD Researcher, Strathclyde Law School, The University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom, The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law 36 (2021) 1–6.