LCIL Event: 'Liability for Environmental Harm from Deep Seabed Mining: Towards a Hybrid Approach' by Prof Neil Craik

Lecture summary: The International Seabed Authority (ISA) has identified the development of liability rules as a priority component of the regulatory framework being created for the exploitation phase of deep seabed mining (DSM). In determining how to structure liability rules and mechanisms, the ISA has a broad range of examples to draw upon, including the rules of state responsibility, domestic liability rules and existing civil liability regimes addressing compensation for harms arising risky activities. Since these approaches respond to the unique conditions of the activity giving rise to the environmental risks and the legal setting in which the activity occurs, a crucial legal task for developing liability rules for DSM is to consider how the distinctive features of the DSM regime will shape the approach to liability. In other words, when it comes to liability, one size does not fit all. As a consequence, the analysis pays specific attention to those aspects of the DSM regime that are sufficiently unique to require consideration of different approaches to liability. It is argued that the complex institutional arrangements surrounding DSM, including the status of the deep seabed and its resources as the common heritage of mankind, as well as the high degree of scientific and technological uncertainty surrounding the potential environmental impacts of DSM, militate in favor of an approach that includes traditional civil liability rules and procedures, but also provides a role for administrative approaches toward compensation for environmental harm.

Neil Craik is an Associate Professor at the University of Waterloo with appointments to the Balsillie School of International Affairs and the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development, where he teaches and researches in the fields of international and Canadian environmental law. His current research examines the legal structure of global commons regimes. Professor Craik has particular interests in climate and geoengineering law and governance, deep seabed mining regulation and environmental impact assessment. He is the author/editor of several books, including Global Environmental Change and Innovation in International Law, (Cambridge University Press, 2018), Climate Change Policy in North America: Designing Integration (UTP, 2013), Public Law: Cases, Materials and Commentary (Emond Montgomery, 2011) and The International Law of Environmental Impact Assessment: Process, Substance and Integration (CUP, 2008). Since 2017, Professor Craik has co-convened (with the International Seabed Authority and Commonwealth Secretariat) the Legal Working Group on Liability for Environmental Harm from Activities in the Area. He is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), Co-director of the BSIA/CIGI International Law Summer Institute and from 2011 to 2017, Professor Craik served as the Director of the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development at the University of Waterloo.