Module overview
This module provides an advanced and critical examination of the legal and governance frameworks regulating the marine environment, with a particular focus on sustainability challenges in the ocean space. The ocean covers approximately 71% of the Earth’s surface and constitutes one of the planet’s most valuable natural resources. Its estimated economic value is at least US$24 trillion; it absorbs around 90% of the excess heat generated by global warming, sequesters approximately 25–30% of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions, and produces over 50% of the oxygen that humans breathe. An estimated 50–80% of all life on Earth is found in the ocean, yet less than 10% of ocean space has been explored. Against this scientific backdrop, the module examines how international and domestic legal regimes respond to accelerating ecological pressures on the global ocean, including climate change, ocean acidification and biodiversity loss, positioning law both as a mechanism for environmental protection and as a site of political, economic and institutional contestation.
Centred on United Nations legal and policy regimes, the module invites students to critically assess how these frameworks regulate human activities such as exploitation of seabed resources, renewable energy, fishing, shipping, and marine scientific research in order to safeguard the long-term health, resilience and productivity of marine ecosystems. In response to the growing global demand for rare earth minerals and other strategic resources, the module further examines emerging governance challenges associated among others with, shipping, deep-sea mining, and analyses how these developments impact communities — including effects on food security, property, and cultural practices. These developments raise profound legal and ethical questions concerning environmental protection, intergenerational equity, and the adequacy of existing legal frameworks governing areas beyond national jurisdiction.
Throughout, the module emphasises the role of law and policy in improving ocean sustainability while amplifying the societal benefits derived from marine ecosystems. Ocean governance is situated within the broader framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, with particular attention to poverty reduction, zero hunger, climate action, reduced inequalities and the protection of life below water. Upon completion, students will possess specialist legal knowledge and critical policy insight enabling them to engage with the complex governance of the global ocean in an era of ecological crisis.