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How do we reach agreement on the use of deep ocean resources? At a time
when seabed mining is raising significant geopolitical, financial, scientific,
industrial and military questions, the ocean floor is an emerging topic in the
world of international law and the law of the sea. This was the theme of the
masterclass given by Virginie Tassin Campanella, attorney-at-law (Paris
and Zurich bar), Founder and Managing Director of international marine law
firm VTA Tassin and Editor of the Routledge Handbook on Seabed Mining
and the Law of the Sea (2024). This pioneer and expert in the field gives her
insights into these questions that are crucial for the future of part of the ocean
that has long fallen under the radar where the law is concerned.

In law, we often lag behind. What is the situation Is the notion of ‘ecological damage’ part of this
with the deep seabed? legal mechanism?
It so happens that in the case of deep-sea mineral Absolutely, except that in the law of the sea, we
resources we are ahead of the game! These don’t refer to ‘ecological damage’. Damage to
resources have not yet begun to be mined, but the the marine environment and its resources, as
law has been developed in advance. At the end of defined by UNCLOS 1982, takes into consideration
World War II, coastal states started laying claim to ‘substantial pollution of or significant and harmful
the mineral resources in the seabed close to their changes to the marine environment’.
shores. It started in 1945 with US President Truman,
then a number of Latin American countries followed What is the next step as far as the law pertaining
suit. Given the growing interest in seabed resources, to the deep sea is concerned?
mainly oil, the international community developed When the 1982 Convention was adopted, the
an international legal framework to regulate access principle of the common heritage of humanity,
to mineral resources and so promote peace. as defined in the Convention, was highly
contested by developed nations and there was
When people grasped the potential of new widespread concern surrounding the ratification
mineral resources in the 1970s, the states of the Convention. An agreement relating to the
involved renegotiated an agreement – the 1982 implementation of that Convention was drawn up
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1994. This agreement changed a lot of things,
(UNCLOS) – this time covering all parts of the in particular the balance of power within the
ocean, including those beyond national jurisdiction. International Seabed Authority. There is an urgent
A new marine area encompassing the deep seabed need to resolve the legal challenges posed by the
was created, known simply as the ‘Area’, where the implementation of that agreement.
resources are the common heritage of humanity.
In this area shared by all, individual states have More generally, huge challenges relating to the way
no jurisdiction or sovereign rights, either over the the law of the sea will be applied in conjunction
seabed or its resources. States have therefore with other branches of law and rights are looming.
always been ahead of the game: they incorporated There is, for example, the human right to a healthy
as yet unexploited resources into international law. environment; also in environmental law, there are