The Environmental Rule of Law for Oceans

Our oceans need a strong and effective environmental rule of law to protect them against increased pressures and demands, including climate change, pollution, fisheries, shipping and more. The environmental rule of law for oceans requires the existence of a set of rules and policies at multiple governance levels that appropriately regulate human activities at sea and ensure that pressures on the marine ecosystem are tackled effectively. Adhering to the rule of law through clear, predictable, coherent and legitimate rules, and their implementation and enforcement, is timely and urgent. In this book, we are searching for ways to improve, strengthen and further develop the environmental rule of law for oceans. The book provides future-oriented perspectives on how law should evolve to better preserve the oceans. All chapters incorporate novel insights and ideas for legal solutions that might inspire scholars, actors, authorities, citizens and communities around the globe. This title is Open Access.

Froukje Maria Platjouw is a Senior researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), Oslo. She is an expert in EU and international law, specialized in environmental law, ocean law and ecosystem-based governance. She is the coordinator of the Horizon Europe funded ‘CrossGov’ project on Coherent and cross-compliant ocean governance for delivering the EU Green Deal for European Seas.

Alla Pozdnakova is Professor of Law at the Scandinavian Institute for Maritime Law, University of Oslo. Her areas of research and teaching are public international law, law of the sea, outer space law, environmental law, Arctic and EU/EEA law. She is a board member of the International Law Association, Norway, and a member of the International Institute for Space Law and of the expert committee for Norwegian space law.