Climate Change Adaptation as Developing Legal Obligations Applicable to the Interpretation of the Law of the Sea Convention

Abstract

Climate change's adverse environmental and societal consequences present a significant challenge for global governance frameworks, including for the law of the sea. Considering the inevitability of these impacts, adaptation of human and ecological systems is increasingly important, contributing to a developing climate change adaptation regime under international climate change law. The law of the sea, meanwhile, has mechanisms facilitating its evolution in response to developments in international law. As climate change compels changes across institutions and governance systems, this thesis explores the legal significance of the climate change adaptation regime to the law of the sea. It analyzes the content and nature of this developing regime and assesses, through systematic interpretation, how the law of the sea may consider it. It further identifies where and how the adaptation regime may inform the interpretation and application of the convention, indicating possibilities for the development of the law of the sea in response to climate change.