Climate and geopolitics putting international maritime law under pressure
In the media image: Greg Becker on Unsplash
Climate change, geopolitical tensions and conflicting interests in the Arctic have sparked renewed attention for enforcement and justice. Hilde Woker, an expert in the law of the sea, comments on the issue in Radio Sleutelstad’s programme ‘Kennismakers’.
Woker says that the Arctic region is a clear example of how climate change and international law come together. 'What happens there has consequences for the entire world', from rising sea levels and the issue of whether small island states can continue to exist, to melting ice sheets opening up new shipping routes. Besides climate change, tensions at sea are also on the rise due to military activities and shadow fleets. Woker says that maritime law does offer instruments to hold states accountable. 'That’s precisely why enforcement, dispute resolution and holding states accountable are crucial, even though international law is currently under pressure from all sides.'
Another example is Greenland, which has been in the news a great deal because Donald Trump has set his sights on it. Although military action was first threatened, a deal now seems to have been made between NATO chief Mark Rutte and Trump. But Woker mentions the vulnerable position of the indigenous Inuit population in Greenland. In international discussions – which tend towards 'land grabbing' – they are often insufficiently heard, while the major powers pursue their strategic and economic interests. 'The question is: what do the Greenlanders and the Inuit themselves think of this, and what affect will it have on their future?' For their population, it means weighing up two options: America that wants to take over Greenland because of its strategic position and the resources in its soil; or 'coloniser' Denmark, which was negatively in the news because of revelations about cases of abuse involving intrauterine contraceptive devices in Inuit girls and women. 'The current situation is now pushing the Inuit back towards Denmark', Woker says. And that while they have expressed their desire to eventually be independent.
International maritime law is under pressure from all sides, and that is increasingly in the news. 'Was that always the case?', Woker is asked. 'The sea has always played a crucial role in human history – think of how trade used to be conducted, how new lands and cultures were discovered, but also slavery, or the era of the Dutch East India Company and Hugo Grotius. So, it seems things can always go wrong somewhere, but you now see that possible violations of international maritime law are linked to other geopolitical developments, and are therefore making the headlines more often. While that certainly makes our field more relevant, it also affects you that key actors on the world stage are always slightly detrimental when it comes to the international legal order.'
An important part of Woker's research focuses on the dialogue between natural sciences and international maritime law. She obtained her PhD on this subject and emphasises how difficult that collaboration sometimes is. 'The law is very binary (guilty or innocent, legal or illegal), while science works more with gradations and uncertainties,' Woker explains. According to her, scientific insights about fishing or the seabed, for example, must be translated into legal standards, and that does not always go well. 'What a geologist understands by the continental shelf is different from the legal definition.' It is precisely by exposing and preventing this miscommunication that Woker attempts to contribute to better substantiated and fairer international maritime law.
More information?
Listen to the full broadcast of Kennismakers - Radio Sleutelstad (in Dutch)