Center for Oceans Law and Policy

Marine Biodiversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) identifies the major issues at stake in the BBNJ negotiations and examines the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction. This timely volume offers cutting edge contributions from leading global experts on access and benefit sharing of marine genetic resources; environmental impact assessments; capacity building and transfer of technology as well as Arctic environmental issues including security and shipping. Cross-cutting themes including the potential impact on existing legal frameworks and instruments are also explored.

Legal Order in the World’s Oceans: UN Convention on the Law of the Sea assesses the impact of the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and many aspects and challenges of modern law of the sea. The theme was selected in part to celebrate that this conference was the Center for Oceans Law and Policy’s 40th Annual Conference and in part to emphasize the seminal contribution to the Rule of Law from UNCLOS in building legal order in the world’s oceans. The comprehensive scope of this inquiry is presented in six parts. The topics are: Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea at the United Nations; the Area and the International Seabed Authority; the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and Dispute Settlement; the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf; Sustainable Fisheries, including the UN Fish Stocks Agreement; and Operational Implementation—Maritime Compliance and Enforcement.

International Marine Economy offers contributions from marine experts around the globe on the economic impacts of recent developments in international waters. From the South China Arbitration Award to the Bay of Bengal Case, this text includes important writings on Artic Shipping and Fisheries, the deep seabed, resources and maritime boundary regimes and studies the possibility of a new international agreement regulating the conservation of biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. Finally, it concludes by considering the challenges and opportunities of whaling in the Antarctic Case, ocean governance issues in Southeast Asia, and the exercise of control over foreign merchant vessels and state liability for wrong assessments. This volume offers much needed contemporary commentary from renowned scholars on rapidly evolving maritime topics.

The law and policy for the Arctic are increasingly of international interest, largely due to the melting of the Arctic ice cap. Challenges of the Changing Arctic: Continental Shelf, Navigation, and Fisheries includes contributions from global specialists dealing with the geomorphologic context, maritime delimitation and specialized topics raised by promising oil and gas prospects, particularly in the extensive continental shelf presented by Russia to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. Arctic shipping has entered a novel, untested phase with keen interest in the opening of ice free shipping lanes and proposed regulatory regimes. Fish in the North Atlantic are moving north disrupting historic fishing patterns as well as traditional fish stocks. Agreements on the allocation of shared fish stocks pose significant management challenges. Both littoral and non-littoral user nations are concerned with maritime security as well as search and rescue preparations given the anticipated increased use of the Arctic Ocean.

These and many other of the most pressing issues are addressed in this important volume, making it a must-read for all those interested in environmental law and the law of the sea.

Freedom of Navigation and Globalization offers a timely analysis of current issues in the Law of the Sea in six Parts.
Part I examines co-operative measures taken within the Southeast Asia region to combat piracy and armed robbery against ships, and the historical activities of the Republic of Korea navy in countering piracy.
Part II focuses on transnational threats including counter proliferation activities, freedom of navigation, Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, and the regulation of private maritime security companies.
Part III consists of two essays on development in the Arctic Ocean. The first updates the activities of the Arctic Council, the second looks at cooperative measures taken by China, Japan, and Korea with respect to science in the Arctic.
In Part IV the topic of energy security and sealanes is taken up. Institutional building within ASEAN is examined for maritime security in Southeast Asia. Freedom of navigation is compared with the straight baselines of China in the South China Sea. In the next essay, cooperative efforts to enhance navigational safety and environmental protection in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore are explored.
Part V considers balancing marine environmental protection and freedom of navigation. The European Union’s Marine Strategy Framework Directive is reviewed. The dispute settlement regime in UNCLOS and the 2001 International Law Commission Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts are analyzed for flag State responsibility for pollution violations. The current mechanisms in the South China Sea marine environment are also evaluated.
Part VI discusses marine data collection in the context of its applicability to Part XIII of UNCLOS. Attention is given to the various categories and their legal consequences. The last paper in the volume outlines global challenges such as global warming, rising sea level and changes in the ice over in the Polar Regions.

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.

Maritime Border Diplomacy, edited by Myron H. Nordquist and John Norton Moore, examines critical issues in international maritime boundary disputes together with the important global role of Indonesia, whose maritime boundaries are imperative to its sovereign status identity. Stressing the seminal importance of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to world order, international experts analyze root causes of boundary disputes including historical claims and competition for natural resources. Issues of preventative diplomacy and activism in maritime affairs are explored, as are legal issues arising in the context of creating zones of cooperation in the oceans. Practical issues in fisheries and environmental management, and the volatile questions involved in the South China Sea, are detailed. The volume concludes with a substantive presentation on dispute resolution mechanisms.

The Law of the Sea Convention: US Accession and Globalization, provides valuable insight into a number of contemporary and pressing issues concerning the world’s oceans and their management.

Organized into two major sections, Part l presents the findings of senior-level experts addressing the fact that the United States is not a Party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982 (UNCLOS). Brought together on the occasion of the 34th Annual Conference of the Center for Oceans Law and Policy, University of Virginia School of Law (COLP), panels considered the impact of the lack of US participation in UNCLOS, evaluating topics such as energy and economic development, including the undersea cable industry, as well as ramifications for U.S. national security and navigational rights.

Part ll of the volume examines key trends in commercial shipping, piracy and terrorism, islands and rocks, safety and navigational freedom, marine scientific research, and emerging global oceans policy issues. Presented by a diverse group of experts, the work brings together the results of an international meeting co-sponsored by the Korea Maritime Institute, the Netherlands Institute for the Law of the Sea and COLP.

Collectively, the work included in this important volume contributes to the existing literature and will be of interest to scholars, practitioners and the policy community.

While the Arctic Ocean has long been covered with ice, recent changes in climate have caused the ice to melt, spurring both conservation challenges to the region's environment and biodiversity, as well as new opportunities for navigation and natural resource development.

Changes in the Arctic Environment and the Law of the Sea offers policy and legal guidance in response to these new challenges. Synthesizing the presentations of leading experts at "Changes in the Arctic Environment and the Law of the Sea" meeting held in May, 2009 in Seward, Alaska, the topics explored in this volume include the political context and scientific background, marine transport, environment and biodiversity, in addition to offshore petroleum and the status of Spitsbergen. A list of selected Internet resources provides links for additional websites, as well as PowerPoint files from presentations given at the meeting.

Changes in the Arctic Environment and the Law of the Sea is based on the 33rd Annual Conference of the Center for Oceans Law and Policy, a primary sponsor, along with the Law of the Sea Institute of Iceland as well as with the U.S. Arctic Commission, the University of Alaska (Fairbanks) and the Law of the Sea Institute, Law School (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley.

Freedom of the seas and passage rights is a highly topical subject for the international community that cuts across a broad spectrum of scholarly disciplines and maritime operations. The contents of the book include in-depth analysis of current international and regional approaches to freedom of navigation, transit passage through straits used for international navigation, archipelagic sea lanes passage, scientific research and hydrographic surveys in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), military surveys in the EEZ, as well as vessel source pollution and protection of the marine environment. Many of the chapters describe measures in place at multilateral and regional levels to improve information sharing and operational coordination. This collection will especially appeal to those concerned with freedom of the seas and passage rights. The CD accompanying the volume includes important documents such as the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea as well many PowerPoint presentations delivered at the conference. It also includes a draft index to the multi-volume series United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982: A Commentary.
This book contains the edited papers and associated documents from the 32nd annual Virginia conference held in Singapore, January 9-10, 2008. Presentations were delivered by government officials, senior naval and coast guard commanders as well as by leading jurists and academics with impressive expertise in the law of the sea.

The focus of this book is on current ocean law and policy issues particularly in the region around China. A main emphasis is a comprehensive survey of Chinese positions on potential flashpoints such as delimitation in the East China Sea and South China Sea. Other topical subjects covered by both Chinese and outside experts are integrated coastal zone management, oil and gas development in the region, fishery management and enforcement, global advancements in marine science, commercial navigation challenges and protection of underwater cultural heritage sites. The authors make clear that there is a strong, shared commitment to cooperative solutions over maritime disputes within the framework of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The work will be useful to anyone concerned with law of the sea in general and the evolving attitudes of States near China in particular.