Marine Ecosystems and International Law: Developing a holistic approach to addressing the management or regulation of ocean ecosystems as a whole

Although the need for international law to address ecosystems as a whole is increasingly accepted, doing so is conceptually problematic for international law. The international legal system tends instead, to address problems and activities on an individual basis. Thus there are laws on fishing rights, laws on control of pollution, laws on exploitation of the resources of the continental shelf and of the resources of the deep seabed, but there appears to be little requiring a joined up, or holistic approach to addressing the management or regulation of ocean ecosystems as a whole.

The right to regulate activities is largely delegated to individual States, who exercise these rights in discreet maritime zones, which are based on set, legally defined, spatial criteria. These legal, spatial zones may, or may not match the boundaries of ecosystems. This leads to a mismatch between the needs of ocean ecosystems and the protection and regulation of their uses that law is able to provide.
There are some exceptions to these broad trends. For example, various implementation measures agreed by the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity demonstrate that the conceptual shift to addressing ecosystems is being made. By and large, however, where the conceptual shift is seen, it is confined to legal regimes addressing the conservation of biological diversity and even these regimes are constrained by the need to work within the jurisdiction allocated to States. They are thus, most likely to be given effect to within the territorial waters or exclusive economic zones of States or on their continental shelves. This leaves a vast area beyond national jurisdiction in which it can be problematic to enforce regulation of ecosystems. In these areas regulation comes from international organisations as a rule. These organisations tend, however, to be established with a single issue or objective to address, be that whaling, shipping or fishing. They are, therefore, ill-equipped to address the ecosystem as a whole.

Some international organisations are addressing these limitations in their ability to address ecosystems as a whole by collaborating with other organisations, which have a different remit. For example, some regional seas organisations focussing on the control of pollution have entered into memoranda of understanding with regional fisheries organisations or with neighbouring regional seas organisations or with the International Seabed Authority to ensure that a more coordinated, or holistic approach is taken to management of the ocean ecosystems on which they focus. Such agreements are, however, relatively rare. The norm is instead for a rather fragmented and somewhat piecemeal system which leads to overlaps in the actors seeking to regulate particular activities and to large gaps in the regulation or protection of ocean ecosystems.

These problems raise the key question of how law should interact with ocean ecosystems. Within this question sits a number or more pointed questions:

1. To what extent does international law as a whole map to the ecosystem requirements?
2. To what extent do the agreements between international organisations designed to ensure that the ecosystem is addressed as a whole actually achieve these ends?
3. To what extent do these agreements represent models for other regions?

We welcome proposals that address any of the issues identified above, whether at a global or regional scale.

Entry Criteria
UK 1st Class/2:1 Bachelor’s degree (or UK equivalent according to NARIC) in Law, specializing in international or environmental law, or international relations with exposure to environmental issues, and preferably a Masters degree in one of these areas.