Over the last century, international law has sought to keep pace with sweeping changes that have revolutionised the international community. It has done so in various ways: by developing new fields, adopting new legal instruments, and including new actors and entities in the international fora. Human rights law and environmental law have emerged to address essential issues raised by civil society. Treaties, judgments and soft law instruments have attempted to fill the gaps in regulation. International organisations, corporations, civil society organisations and individuals have all worked to make and enforce, also by judicial means, legal rules. But is all this sufficient?

In an effort to answer this question, the chapters of this volume explore selected emerging issues in the fields of human rights, the environment, cultural heritage and law of the sea. Can state responsibility help to protect the environment? Can protecting human rights be reconciled with nationalsecurity? Can the UN Security Council address climate change? Is law of the sea still fit for purpose? And how can we balance human rights and the environment, or cultural heritage and law of the sea? The international scholars and experienced practitioners who have contributed to this volume discuss these and other key questions.

Given its scope, the book will appeal to researchers and scholars of international law, as well as those specialising in human rights law, environmental law, cultural heritage law, and law of the sea.