Climate change law and law of the sea through the lens of regime interaction: A regime interaction study

Abstract

The fact climate change and the ocean are interrelated in a physical sense opens up the question whether the same can be said for the regimes governing them. While it appears obvious that they should interact, it is not clear that they do. At the first glance it seems that the climate change regime and the law of the sea regime do not take account of each other. The core instruments of the law of the sea regime do not mention climate change directly, and neither do the instruments of the UN climate change regime refer to the ocean, apart from its role as a sink. Through the lens of regime interaction further interactions may be discovered, be it normative overlaps or institutional interactions. This thesis seeks to analyze both regimes through the lens of regime interaction in order to assess whether they support one another in addressing climate change and the adverse effects to the marine environment.