Law of the Sea in Portugal: prospects for the 21st century

Marta Chantal Ribeiro / Duarte Lynce de Faria / Eliana Silva Pereira / Manuel Almeida Ribeiro / Paulo Neves Coelho / Pedro Quartin Graça / Rui Ferreira

Keywords

Deep Sea Mining; Fisheries; Outer Continental Shelf; Unmanned Maritime Vehicles; Maritime Boundaries Delimitation; Maritime Law.

Abstract

This article is the result of contributions provided by different authors. It starts presenting a general perspective of the current and future framework of the law of the sea in Portugal, and proceeds developing particular topics that are relevant for understanding some of the important legal challenges in forthcoming decades. Reforming, deepening, anticipating and investing are actions that should be carried out in the Portuguese legal order in fields such as: first, fisheries, marine scientific research and the system of law enforcement in the sea; second, marine spatial planning and management of the national maritime space, expansion and consolidation of the marine protected areas network, and prospection, exploration and exploitation of the deep-sea mineral resources; third, marine robotics, renewable energies and the upcoming international agreement under the UNCLOS on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction; fourth, the ongoing process for the establishment of the outer limits of the Portuguese continental shelf before the CLCS, and the capacity building for specific expertise on the law of the sea. Part of these topics — fisheries, mining, marine robotics and extension of the continental shelf — are analyzed in more detail in independent sections. Still, this article further benefits from a contribution regarding the old quarrel on delimitation of maritime borders between Portugal and Spain, and from another one regarding the future of the maritime law in Portugal. References to the latter legal field, which presents a regime closer to private law, were included to enrich this paper, since articles on such field are less common.