Legal Opinion Launch Webinar |Why a Moratorium on Deep-sea Mining is Legally Sound 

Webinar Overview

In the past few months, 14 member States of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) have made public announcements in support of a ‘moratorium’ or ‘precautionary pause’ on deep-sea mining, unless there is sufficient scientific knowledge and regulatory structures in place to ensure that the deep-sea will be protected from the harmful effects of seabed mining. Other stakeholder groups, including parliamentarians, scientists, civil society, financiers, and manufacturers, have joined this call. Meanwhile, proponents of seabed mining have questioned the validity of this position considering States’ obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the ISA’s mandate.

 

In response, The Pew Charitable Trusts requested an independent legal opinion on the consistency of a moratorium or precautionary pause on deep-sea mining with States’ obligations under UNCLOS. This Opinion has been written by four eminent international law experts: King’s Counsel Prof. Zachary Douglas, former Attorney-General Taulapapa Brenda Heather-Latu and Matrix Chambers’ barristers Toby Fisher and Jessica Jones.

 

The webinar, organized by Pew Charitable Trusts and moderated by RESOLVE, took place on Tuesday, 2 May 2023 from 13:00 - 14:30 UTC. During the event, the Opinion authors presented their findings and discussed questions from the audience. 

Click here to review the webinar agenda. Slides presented during the webinar are available here and a webinar summary is available here .

 

 

 

CONTACTS

Paul De Morgan

 

 

Photo Credit: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research