Technological Change and the Law of the Sea: The Challenge of Marine Geoengineering

Journal article

A significant impetus for the negotiation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) was the impact of new technological and scientific developments on the law of the sea. Such developments have continued apace, raising the question of how UNCLOS continues to respond to new uses of, and threats to, the oceans. This article focuses on marine geoengineering as an emerging technological response to the climate emergency and its regulation by the specialised global dumping regime of the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter and its Protocol within the general normative framework provided by UNCLOS. It demonstrates how responding to technological developments is hard-wired into the DNA of the law of the sea, and into UNCLOS in particular, which remains the foundation for the governance and management of new maritime technologies.

Authors: Redgwell, C

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Journal: International & Comparative Law Quarterly
• Volume: 74
• Issue: S1
• Pages: 11-25
• Publication date: 2025-11-14
• DOI: 10.1017/s0020589325101127
• EISSN: 1471-6895
• ISSN: 0020-5893
• Language: English
• Keywords: London Convention; law of the sea; Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter; public international law; maritime technologies; United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea; Protocol to the London Convention