Laws need to be responsive and adaptive to the often-unforeseen changes in the marine environment, taking into consideration the marine ecosystem as a whole, and moving away from the traditional sectoral management. This may weaken the rule of law. Central to the legislative instruments in force regulating the use of aquatic systems and ocean management, is the concept of the ecosystem approach, which is extensively employed by instruments safeguarding marine ecosystems. This Chapter will consider implementation of the ecosystem approach in the overlapping legislative measures regulating ship source oil pollution in the Baltic Sea, a small intracontinental regional sea, which is one of the most polluted seas in the world. It will also consider how institutional interaction between these measures has affected implementation of the ecosystem approach in this regional multilayered regulatory system, and if that interaction will enable regional institutions as the key to successfully regulating international sectors such as shipping and strengthening the rule of law.

UNCLOS carries various obligations relating to protection of the marine environment. States must take positive action to meet those obligations, going beyond reduction of pollution. Special protection must be afforded to vulnerable ecosystems, and this can involve the establishment of marine protected areas. The international community has committed to adoption of the ecosystem approach in various soft law instruments and it has, particularly come to feature in legal instruments of ocean management. Indeed, the future of the oceans depends on application of the ecosystem approach.

The judicial process of maritime delimitation is clearly established, and it pays little regard to ecological circumstances. However, a majority of maritime boundaries is negotiated, and States are free to depart from traditional judicial methods when agreeing on bilateral arrangements. An ecosystem approach to maritime delimitation could promote sustainable development and biodiversity within national jurisdiction, and even mitigate the adverse effects of climate change on the marine environment. It could provide a better basis for resource management and be an improvement on the sectoral approach.

In no other ecosystem is biodiversity being irreversibly damaged to the extent that is occurring in inland or freshwater ecosystems. International legal frameworks are failing to reverse the current global freshwater biodiversity crisis. The ecosystem approach has emerged as a promising scientifically and socially progressive approach to managing ecosystems and the vulnerable societies that depend on them. The legal normative content and international legal status of this concept remain unclear. This chapter identifies five international legal elements of an ecosystem approach concerning transboundary freshwater ecosystems, drawing from international biodiversity, wetlands and water law which also includes fair and equitable benefit-sharing. It demonstrates how the UNECE regime provides the strongest clarification of an ecosystem approach, going beyond the UN Watercourses Convention and customary international law but benefits from interpretive clarification under biodiversity and wetlands regimes. The concept of ecosystem services is part of an ecosystem approach and the legal dimensions of this concept are examined. This chapter discusses how the ecosystem approach stimulates cross-sectoral coherence and mutual supportiveness between these different areas of law and contributes to equity in that process. It outlines how international human rights law could be relied upon to promote a stronger equity dimension for ecosystem services.

The basic scope and characteristics of environmental law is a foundation for this book. Environmental law can take different forms and be seen as an area of law that touches upon many other fields of law with the primary aim of protecting the environment, animals, and human health. Over time environmental law have developed its own legal techniques, norms, approaches, and principles to match the dynamic and holistic perspectives of the ecosystems. The purpose of the book is to identify how law can be designed to match and contribute to social-ecological resilience. The aim is to present a new framework for creating and assessing environmental law in relation to resilience theories; however, the components will be based in current environmental laws (i.e., the specific characteristics of environmental law). This chapter aims to explain some of the fundaments of environmental law and review thecharacteristics that will form important components.

Adaptivity, flexibility, and transformability are fundamental features of resilience governance. These features represent the need for governance to match the constant movements of the ecosystem and the effects of pressures on the ecosystem. It is also through adaptive and flexible features that transformability can be created. Adaptive or flexible mechanisms within law matching such governance features, could be described as legal structures and measures that create space for adaptive procedures and flexible responses also within the legal regime. However, it must be noted that law could also create a kind of resistance to flexible changes in the social-ecological system. This could be regarded as one main function connected to the institutional structure and the social resilience that law creates, where stability over time and the potential to anticipate and prevent certain developments are central. International and EU law can be seen as rather adaptive and flexible in their inherent design.

Stakeholder participation is key for resilience governance and management. Participation is important for bottom-up approaches in adaptive governance, where self-organization and local knowledge are important factors. Different kinds of participation are also important for structural and monitoring issues in multi-level governance. Stakeholders, or NGOs, are in this sense important both in transferring knowledge and information in multidimensional governance structures and for bridging structural or institutional gaps. Emphasizing the role of stakeholder participation can be seen as a democratic and decentralized approach. Participation by the public is seen as an important feature for assuring transparency, legitimacy, and accountability, which have been established as important for governance structures in general. Trust building and effectiveness are also closely tied to issues of participation. Law generally includes pathways for participation at all levels. However, the purpose of participation in legal structures is somewhat different than the purpose of participation in resilience governance.

The systems ecology paradigm (SEP) is presented as the right science and analytical approach at the right time for resolving many of the Earth’s natural resource, environmental, and societal challenges. SEP embodies two major parts. One, the systems ecology approach, which is the holistic, systems thinking perspective and methodology developed for the rigorous study of ecosystems, including humans. Two, the use of ecosystem science, the vast body of scientific knowledge, much of which has been assembled using the ecosystem and systems ecology approaches. The fundamental philosophy, evolution, and application of the SEP are defined in this chapter. The organizing principles of the SEP include: many problems are complex and complicated and may have multiple causes; precise definitions of problems and their spatial, temporal, and organizational hierarchical scales are critical; collaborative decision making including scientists, technical and administrative staff members, and essential stakeholders is essential; transparent, honest, and effective communication is required; globalization of collaboration within interdisciplinary networks has been a hallmark of the paradigm; and integration of simulation modeling, field and laboratory studies has proven indispensable for many scientific breakthroughs. A call for integration of transdisciplinary science, policy making, and management is presented.