“There needs to be some policy and political direction at this stage and we’re really providing the foundation to enable the International Seabed Authority to do that.”
A. Neil Craik on CIGI’s role in the video “Legal Pathways for Addressing Environmental Harm in Deep Seabed Mining Activities”
Natural resources such as gold, copper, manganese and zinc lie deep in the ocean and state-sponsored companies are now surveying and staking claim to these resources, which fall beyond national jurisdictions. There are, however, substantial gaps in existing international law regarding damage for environmental harm caused by exploration and mining activities. As a result, CIGI experts have taken on a leadership role along with other partners to write international law where there is none.
A legal working group composed of experts in various areas of international law was convened by CIGI, directed by Senior Fellow A. Neil Craik, in collaboration with the International Seabed Authority and the Commonwealth Secretariat, to address the issue of liability for environmental and other harm that could arise from deep seabed mining. The Liability Issues for Deep Seabed Mining project held several workshops in 2017 and 2018. Its Synthesis Report on Liability Issues was published in July 2018, with a series of papers to follow.