International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea

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Four Key Takeaways for Deep Sea Mining from the ICJ Advisory Opinion

September 22, 2025

Established by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the International Seabed Authority (ISA) is responsible for administering resources in the Area, including regulating Deep Sea Mining (DSM) activities (art. 156 UNCLOS). The role of the ISA and the DSM regime is amended and elaborated on in the 1994 Implementation Agreement on Part XI of UNCLOS.  In 2021, Nauru invoked the “two-year rule” which formally requested the ISA to finalise exploitation regulations by 2023 (s 1(15)(b) Annex to the Implementation Agreement). The ISA has continued to negotiate exploitation regulations, but as at the close of its latest session in July 2025, no regulations have been agreed upon. Despite the Implementation Agreement permitting applications for exploitation contracts upon expiration of the two-year rule (s 1(15)(c) Annex to the Implementation Agreement), the international community’s understanding of the potential impacts of DSM exploitation has evolved over time, resulting in some States calling for a “moratorium”, “precautionary pause”, or a total ban on DSM. On the…

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COPs as Emerging Subjects of International Law? Rethinking Legal Personality in Global Governance

November 6, 2024

Introduction The sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) finished last week in Colombia, kicking off the 2024 COP season. A large part of the international legal community turned its attention to the discussions held in Cali, and will now focus on the upcoming debates in…

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The ITLOS Advisory Opinion: Human Rights as a Withered Branch of International Law?

June 24, 2024

On 21 May 2024, at the request of the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (COSIS), the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS or Tribunal) delivered its long-awaited advisory opinion. While some scholars have welcomed the advisory opinion for its ‘contextual and systemic approach to interpretation’ [cf. Paine],…

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“Stringent Due Diligence”, Duties of Cooperation and Assistance to Climate Vulnerable States, and the Selective Integration of External Rules in the ITLOS Advisory Opinion on Climate Change and International Law

June 3, 2024

The International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea's  (ITLOS) 153-page 21 May 2024 Advisory Opinion on Climate Change and International Law is the first decision issued in the trifecta of advisory proceedings on climate change pending in international courts (the other two being the International Court of Justice and the Inter-American Court of Human…

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The ITLOS Advisory Opinion on Climate Change: Selected Issues of Treaty Interpretation

June 3, 2024

Introduction This post analyses selected treaty interpretation issues in the ITLOS Advisory Opinion on Climate Change, delivered on 21 May 2024. The post does not seek to summarise nor address all issues raised by the Advisory Opinion. Instead, the aim is to analyse certain issues of treaty interpretation that arose at numerous points in the…

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