Prof Richard Barnes - Environmental Rights in Marine Spaces
Friday 13 November, 10:00 – 11:00
This event is free but please register at Eventbrite.
Abstract
Environmental rights are typically regarded as an extension of human rights into environmental matters. They encompass both substantive rights, such as the right to a healthy environment, and procedural rights, which include access to environmental information, participation in decision-making and access to justice. Environmental rights discourse has been used to deepen our understanding of how and why we protect the natural world. This discourse is mainly focused on rights arising from terrestrial activities. It appears this focus is the by-product of a nexus between people and lived space – a nexus that facilitates an awareness, realisation and protection of individual rights arising in terrestrial spaces. However, such a nexus appears to be under-developed in marine contexts. At best, generally fashioned environmental rights spill over into marine environments. Legal texts particular to marine spaces which have little if anything to say about human rights. No binding human rights instrument explicitly refers to the oceans, although the Geneva Declaration on Human Rights at Sea recognises the need for maritime specific protections.
In this paper, I explore why the marine environment seems to resist or at least exist at the margins of environmental rights discourse. By understanding why environmental rights are marginalised we can begin to take steps to bring this discourse to the fore in developing the regulation of marine spaces. Arguably, this is best done by creating space for greater local engagement in marine regulation (participatory rights), and by recognising the different connections that people have with both ocean spaces and things (substantive rights).
About Prof Barnes
Richard is Professor of International Law at the University of Lincoln and a Board Member of the Centre for Ecological Justice. He has published widely on law of the sea: Property Rights and Natural Resources (2009) (SLS Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship), The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea: A Living Instrument, and Law of the Sea: Progress and Prospects. His current research is on governance mechanisms for areas beyond national jurisdiction and the legal implications of Brexit for marine fisheries, for which he has appeared as expert witness before a number of UK Parliamentary committees.
Prof Barnes’ seminar is part of the 2020-21 SCELG Seminar series. Further information about the other talks can be found here.