The Law of the Sea in the Age of Climate Change
Though the threat of climate change has come sharply into focus in recent decades, humans have long endeavored to shape and reshape the natural world, carving it up and making sense of it through technological innovations. In just one example, projects of reclamation have increased Singapore\u2019s total land area by 25 percent. The Changi airport sits on land that was once ocean.
As Surabhi Ranganathan discusses in her recent article, \u201cThe Law of the Sea\u201d for The Dial, this poses a unique challenge for international law. Surbahi writes, \u201cThe shifting relation between land and sea reflects the scale of human impact on the environment. This unstable relation forces us to confront the consequences of climate change, as the fixed certainties\u2014soil, resources, infrastructure\u2014that have for so long governed our imagination of land begin to fall apart.\u201d
Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien sat down with Surabhi, a Professor of International Law at the University of Cambridge, to discuss her article and what shipwrecks, fragile ports, sinking states, continental shelves, trash islands, seasteading, undersea cables, and oceanic vents can tell us about how international law must adapt to better address our uncertain climate future.
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