Sustainable Development Approaches in the New Law of the Sea

Abstract

Due to the emergence of sustainable development and in relation with the Law of the Sea, a new set of principles and rules has emerged at the crossroads of LOSC and the CBD; it defines a renewed legal framework (A), especially in terms of rights and obligations of coastal states over maritime spaces and marine resources, but also of environmental protection and preservation. This new approach supposes, for example, to be able to strike a balance between exploitation of marine resources and protection of marine biodiversity, and is at the core of current challenges of economic exploitation (B), both in the superjacent waters and on the seabed and subsoil.