Natural Resources

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Is Deep-Seabed Mining Compatible with the Human Right to a Healthy Environment? Insights from the ICJ and IACtHR Climate Change Advisory Opinions

June 1, 2026

Samantha Robb

Naima Taafaki-Fifita

Michelle Bender

In 2025, following the 2024 advisory opinion (AO) of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea on Climate Change (here), the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) issued their AOs on Climate Change (here and here, respectively). These historic AOs have generated extensive commentary. This blog shifts focus from the climate change realm by extracting the ICJ and IACtHR’s findings on the Human Right to a Clean Healthy and Sustainable Environment (HRHE) and applying them in the context of an extractive industry that has the potential to cause significant harm to the marine environment: deep-seabed mining (DSM).

The ICJ Advisory Opinion on Climate Change: What It Means for the Convention on Biological Diversity

May 22, 2026

Margaret Young

Astrid Schomaker

This week’s General Assembly’s resolution welcoming the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion on Obligations of States in Respect of Climate Change provides significant guidance. It calls upon all States to ‘comply with their respective obligations under international law to ensure the protection of the climate system and other parts of the environment from anthropogenic greenhouse…

The ‘Economic Unity’ Theory and the Discretionary Power of the International Seabed Authority to Deny Contract Extensions

February 12, 2026

Maria Esther Salamanca-Aguado

Normative and institutional context On 20 January 2026, the Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority (the ‘Authority’) – the international organization established under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (the ‘Convention’) to organize and control mineral-related activities in the deep seabed beyond national jurisdiction (Article 157, UNCLOS) – notified Member States of…

Expropriation, Oil and the Prohibition on the Use of Force: Justification Narratives and the Effectiveness of International Law in the Venezuela Crisis

January 13, 2026

Julian Scheu

The US military intervention in Venezuela amounts to a manifest breach of the prohibition on the use of force under international law. Neither self-defence nor authorization by the UN Security Council can be invoked to justify the use of military force under these circumstances. The operation also clearly violates the principle of non-intervention, as it was explicitly aimed…

Why the ISA cannot greenlight seabed mining without benefit-sharing regulations

December 29, 2025

Dr Aline Jaeckel

Erik van Doorn

Debates around deep seabed mining (DSM) frequently focus on the question of when the International Seabed Authority (ISA) will adopt its regulations for mineral exploitation. The ISA was established under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and regulates and governs all DSM on the seabed beyond national jurisdiction, the “Area”. It also decides…

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The Right to Regulate for Public Morals Upheld (Somewhat): The WTO Panel Report in EC-Seal Products

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Diane Desierto

There have been few interpretations of Article XX(a) of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT 1994) - the specific exception that justifies what would ordinarily be a State's GATT-inconsistent measure, unless such measure is deemed "necessary to protect public morals". As with any of the ten enumerated exceptions under Article XX of GATT 1994, a State invoking GATT…

Philippines v China: first thoughts on the Award in the South China Seas Case

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Any international lawyer looking at a news site in the last few hours will have seen that the final award has been handed down at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Philippines v China dispute brought under the UN Convention on the Law Sea Annex VII procedure. The arbitral tribunal’s decision is simply historic. While Philippines…

Beyond “Good Neighborliness” in the ICJ 1 October 2018 Judgment in Bolivia v. Chile: Do Human Rights and Sustainable Development Obligate Creating Negotiated Access for Landlocked Bolivia to the Pacific Ocean?

October 4, 2018

Diane Desierto

On 1 October 2018, the International Court of Justice issued its Judgment on the Merits in Obligation to Negotiate Access to the Pacific Ocean (Bolivia v. Chile), finding, by 12 votes to 3, that Chile "did not undertake a legal obligation to negotiate sovereign access to the Pacific Ocean" for Bolivia and rejecting all other submissions of Bolivia. While…

Trade Agreements, EU Law, and Occupied Territories – A Report on Polisario v Council

July 1, 2015

Geraldo Vidigal

Speaking of occupied territories, an interesting judgment should soon come from the General Court of the European Union (GC) in Action for Annulment Frente Polisario v Council (Case T-512/12), a case with fascinating international law aspects. I attended the hearing last week and think it warrants a report. Frente Polisario is a national liberation movement…