Bridging the Land-Sea-Interface

Phillipp Peter Nickels is a PhD Candidate at the Norwegian Centre for the Law of the Sea (NCLOS).

His dissertation will look at the limits and possibilities of international law, including the law of the sea, to mitigate ocean acidification at the intersection of land and sea. Ocean acidification is to a great extent caused by CO2 emissions from land-based sources that enter the atmosphere to eventually be absorbed by seawater.  

Ocean acidification thus presents itself as a regulatory challenge at the intersection of land and sea and is one example among others of external impacts on the marine environment, which might call into question the problem-solving capacity of international law, as evidenced by continuing ocean acidification.

Before becoming a PhD Candidate at NCLOS, Nickels did a bachelor’s in political science and public law in Germany and an LL.M in the Law of the Sea at UiT – The Arctic University of Norway. After getting his LL.M. he worked for a year as a researcher at NCLOS on various projects.