Jeff A. Ardron
is a recognised leader and international expert in marine and environmental governance, policy, planning and conservation. Currently, he is the Africa Oceans Director for The Nature Conservancy (TNC). Previously, he led the Commonwealth Blue Charter, a unique international agreement that he conceived and established. Dr Ardron is a co-founder of two NGOs, three international initiatives, and a board member of several others. He is also a researcher and author, with over 60 papers in the peer-reviewed literature and a co-authored textbook on international marine policy. He holds a PhD in Ocean and Earth Science from the University of Southampton, UK, and an MSc in Environment and Management from Royal Roads University, Canada.
Catherine Blanchard
previously worked as Assistant Professor of Public International Law at Utrecht University. Her research and teaching activities focused on the regulation of deep-seabed mining, marine environmental protection, areas beyond national jurisdiction, fisheries law and ocean governance. Catherine presented her work in international journals and at international conferences and workshops in Europe and North America, and her latest research showcased the interactions between international law and marine sciences through her collaboration with marine biologists. Catherine attended several meetings of the BBNJ process, and acted as legal adviser to the Deep-Ocean Stewardship Initiative during meetings of the International Seabed Authority.
Laisa Branco de Almeida
is a PhD Candidate in international law and Teaching Assistant at The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID). She holds a Master’s Degree in International Law from the IHEID, where she was granted the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation Fellowship (2020–2022). She is also a member of the Minerals and BBNJ Groups of the Deep-Ocean Stewardship Initiative and of the World Commission on Environmental Law of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Her research interests lie in resource management, allocation of marine biodiversity, and the intersection between the law of the sea and environmental law.
Thomas Cheney
is a Vice Chancellors Research Fellow and Assistant Professor in Law at Northumbria University. He uses the frameworks of legal geography and the
Patricia Esquete
is a marine scientist at the Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal. Her research interests include biodiversity and its ecological drivers, as well as human impacts in the deep sea. As a taxonomist, she has described dozens of marine crustacean taxa new to science and serves as editor for the Word Register of Marine Species. Additionally, she studies the cultural aspects of knowledge production from an anthropological perspective. In the field of marine policy and management, she participates in multinational negotiations as co-lead of the Minerals Working group of the Deep-Ocean Stewardship Initiative.
Sabine Gollner
is a senior scientist at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ). She is a deep-sea biologist, studying biodiversity, connectivity and resilience of deep-sea fauna in mineral-rich ecosystems such as hydrothermal vents and polymetallic nodules fields. Sabine has participated and led several research expeditions on the high seas, including dives in submersibles and work with Remotely Operated Vehicles. In her transdisciplinary research projects, she works together with lawyers on the topics of ocean health and management. Sabine acts as scientific advisor of the Netherlands delegation to the International Seabed Authority and is co-lead of the Minerals Working Group of the Deep-Ocean Stewardship Initiative.
Jesse M.A. van der Grient
is a marine quantitative ecologist with experience working on shallow- and deep-water ecosystems. She worked in the UK (University of Oxford), USA (University of Hawaii), and Falkland Islands (South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute) focusing on fisheries, climate change, and deep-sea mining. Currently, she works at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea research (NIOZ). As part of the Deep-Ocean Stewardship Initiative, she participates as an observer at the International Seabed Authority meetings. She received her BA and PhD from the University of Oxford, and she was a college tutor at several colleges of the University of Oxford.
is a Senior Research Associate at Utrecht University, where she is based at the Netherlands Institute for the Law of the Sea. Her postdoctoral research focuses on non-use, global/international commons, and Antarctic tourism. Other research interests include international fisheries law and issues related to international courts and tribunals. Solène has published articles and chapters on these topics as well as the manuscript of her doctoral research on the use of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species for fish species. She has also worked at the International Court of Justice and the European Commission, and has been engaged in international litigations as counsel.
James Harrison
is Professor of Environmental Law at the University of Edinburgh. His research interests span international and domestic environmental law, with a particular focus on the protection and preservation of the marine environment, including the regulation of fishing, shipping, dumping and seabed mining. He has published widely on these topics, including Making the Law of the Sea: a study in the development of international law (Cambridge University Press 2011) and Saving the Oceans through Law: the legal framework for the protection of the marine environment (Oxford University Press 2017). He regularly advises intergovernmental institutions, governments and non-governmental organisations on legal issues relating to the protection of the environment.
Aline Jaeckel
is Associate Professor at the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS) at the University of Wollongong. Her research focuses on law of the sea and international environmental law with a particular focus on the regulation and governance of deep seabed mining. She has published widely, including a monograph on The International Seabed Authority and the Precautionary Principle (Brill 2017) and the co-edited Research Handbook on International Marine Environmental Law, 2nd ed (Edward Elgar 2023). She acts as a government advisor during the ongoing negotiations at the International Seabed Authority, regularly conducts consultancies, and serves on the Editorial Board of Marine Policy.
Cameron Jeffries
is a Professor of Law at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, where he specializes in international and domestic environmental law, oceans law, and wildlife conservation. His primary research interest is whale conservation.
Nicolas Kempf
has a PhD from the Faculty of Law of the University of Montreal, Québec, Canada. He previously received a master’s degree from the Maritime and Oceanic Law Centre of the Faculty of Nantes, France. His current research focuses on the regime of the mineral resources of the seabed in the Southern Ocean and the use of broad indeterminate environmental principles as legitimizing principles.
Bastiaan E. Klerk
is a PhD candidate at the Norwegian Centre for the Law of the Sea, at the Arctic University of Tromsø, Norway (UiT). He received LLM s in international law of the sea and public international law from the universities of Tromsø and Oslo, respectively. His research aims to advance environmental conservation through law, focusing on a variety of topics including the climate-ocean nexus, biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction, and (dynamic) area-based conservation and management.
Rebecca Konijnenberg
is an early career researcher interested in the intersection of marine conservation and policy, with a particular focus on climate change. She is currently finishing her PhD studies at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) at the University of Tasmania, where she investigates how sampling designs for fish in the Southern Ocean can be optimized. Previously, she worked as the data scientist for the Weddell Sea Marine Protected Area Phase 1 proposal team at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany. She continues to support the work of the German delegation to the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources.
Kate Latos
JD, MBA, BComm was called to the bar in Alberta, Canada in 2024. She carried out the research and writing for this chapter as a JD student at the University of Alberta, Faculty of Law as a part of a Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) funded project on the future of cetacean conservation.
Mitchell Lennan
is Lecturer in Environmental Law at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland and an affiliate of the UKRI GCRF One Ocean Hub. His research interests are in
Anne-Sophie Martin
is a research fellow at the Institute for International Legal Studies of the National Research Council (ISGI-CNR), Rome, Italy. She received her LLM in Space Law and Telecommunications Law from the University of Paris-Saclay (France) and her PhD from Sapienza University of Rome (Italy). She is a member of the Legal Council of For All Moonkind and a Senior Fellow in the For All Moonkind’s Institute on Space Law and Ethics. She is also a member of the International Astronomical Union’s Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Skies as well as a Research Affiliate with the Open Lunar Foundation. Since 2021, she participates in the Global Expert Group on Sustainable Lunar Activities. Between 2016 and 2019, she was an observer in The Hague Space Resources Governance Working Group.
Elisabetta Menini
holds a PhD in Marine Science and Conservation from the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. Her background is in marine biology and maritime spatial planning. Her academic experience includes studies in invertebrate’s biology and phylogenetics, maritime geopolitics, and marine spatial planning carried out internationally. Her dissertation is a multidisciplinary approach on the environmental management for deep-seabed mining in the international seabed. Using both quantitative and qualitative analysis, she developed her studies on the science-policy interface on various aspects of seabed mining, including the protection of deep-sea ecosystem and stakeholder engagement. With the technical team of the Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab, she has been involved in all the Workshops of the International Seabed Authority for the development of the Regional Environmental Management Plans on the Area since 2019.
Erik J. Molenaar
has been with the Netherlands Institute for the Law of the Sea at Utrecht University since 1994 and currently holds the position of Deputy Director. After having completed his PhD on ‘Coastal State Jurisdiction over Vessel-Source Pollution’, he broadened his research field with international fisheries law and the international law relating to the Arctic and the Antarctic. He has a large
Jeroen Oomen
is Assistant Professor at the Urban Futures Studio and the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development of Utrecht University. His research focuses on the social, cultural, and scientific practices that create societies’ conceptions of the future. His main research interests are climate policy, geoengineering, and social theory. He is the author of the book Imagining Climate Engineering: Dreaming of the Designer Climate (Routledge 2021) and co-author (with Maarten Hajer) of the forthcoming book Captured Futures: Rethinking the Drama of Environmental Politics (Oxford University Press 2025).
Guillermo Ortuño Crespo
is a marine biologist focused on the conservation of migratory marine species, fisheries, and High Seas governance. Over the past decade, he has contributed research to the UN treaty negotiations on biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction and to regional fisheries management organizations, aiming to inform bycatch mitigation and area-based management policies. He co-leads the IUCN’s High Seas Specialist Group and helped launch the Early Career Ocean Professional network for the UN Decade of Ocean Science. Currently, he works as a freelance consultant, authoring numerous publications, reports, and policy briefs on marine conservation and sustainable use.
Ricardo Roura
is an Antarctic conservation professional and independent scholar with extensive experience in research, analysis and advocacy in Antarctica and the Antarctic Treaty System, with active roles in the field and in Antarctic decision-making fora and related technical/scientific bodies. He earned his PhD at the Arctic Centre, University of Groningen, with research on cultural heritage tourism in Antarctica and Svalbard. He is a senior advisor for the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC), the environmental expert/observer NGO to Antarctic Treaty system fora. Primarily a practitioner focused on Antarctic governance, management and environmental policy, he has published in the academic press on a range of polar issues. He is a founding member of the working group on the rights of Antarctica.
is Senior Researcher at the Institute of Marine Sciences of the National Research Council of Italy. She is currently vice-chair of the joint IOC-IHO GEBCO (General Bathymetric Charts of the Oceans) Guiding Committee and member of the establishment team of the GEBCO Seabed 2030 project. She served as member of the Legal and Technical Commission of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) and continues to advise the Italian delegation at the works of the ISA. With a background in marine geology, she sailed and coordinated dozens of oceanographic cruises concerning seafloor mapping, marine geo-resources, deep-sea habitats and depositional systems, deep oceanic crustal structure.
Pradeep A. Singh
is an ocean governance expert at the Oceano Azul Foundation. He previously was a Fellow at the Research Institute for Sustainability – Helmholtz Centre Potsdam (RIFS), Germany. He advises several governments, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and other actors on the legal and regulatory aspects of deep seabed mining. An expert on the topics of ocean governance and the international law of the sea, Pradeep has been following multilateral negotiations at the International Seabed Authority for nearly a decade. He holds advanced law degrees from Harvard Law School, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Malaya.
Katharina Teschke
is a Senior Scientist for marine ecology at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, and the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity at the University Oldenburg (Germany). Her research interest is marine spatial planning and how best to protect and manage marine ecosystems. She works closely with various German ministries, translating scientific findings into concrete policy proposals. She is the scientific lead of the Weddell Sea Marine Protected Area Phase 1 proposal for the German delegation to the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources.
Osvaldo Urrutia
is a Senior Lecturer in international law and law of the sea at P. Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. As a legal adviser of the Government of Chile for nearly twenty years, Mr Urrutia was involved in international ocean and fisheries affairs and negotiations, at global and regional organisations. He