Sorting out the legal issues 



As life in the coastal areas becomes more complex, 

 so do the legal issues surrounding it. In the United 

 States, a huge body of law has grown up around the 

 ocean and the coast — a body of law that becomes in- 

 creasingly important as the struggle for the control 

 of limited resources intensifies. 



Dr. Thomas Schoenbaum, a faculty member of the 

 UNC School of Law, is trying to help others interpret 

 and understand this complex body of law. This sum- 

 mer, with Sea Grant support, he is teaching the 

 state's first ocean and coastal law policy course. 



The course is being offered in a five-week summer 

 school session for law students and graduate students 

 in marine sciences at the UNC School of Law. Course 

 work is based on a two-volume text prepared by 

 Schoenbaum and seven of his students and published 

 by UNC Sea Grant. 



Schoenbaum believes that the texts will be helpful 

 to scientists, policy makers and lawyers in other 

 states. 



The course will cover ocean and coastal law of the 

 United States. Schoenbaum believes that it will be 

 useful to lawyers going into private practice in the 

 coastal area as well as to the growing numbers of law 

 graduates who enter government work. 



"We have a lot of coastal education programs, but 

 there's no course in any of the universities in this 

 state on marine policies or law. Everybody who 

 works with the coastal area will have some contact 

 with marine policy or law," he said. 



Course work covers seven major areas. Ocean law 

 topics include the international law of the sea, 

 fisheries management and marine mammal protec- 

 tion, and laws concerning marine pollution control. 

 Schoenbaum will also discuss laws governing non- 

 living resources, especially those which control min- 

 ing on the Outer Continental Shelf and the building 

 of floating nuclear power plants. 



Under coastal law, students will study the public 

 and private rights to coastal resources, construction 

 and regulatory activities of the U.S. Army Corps of 

 Engineers and land use planning. 



As part of the two-year Sea Grant pilot project, 

 graduate students are doing legal research designed 

 to benefit the state. They are trying to determine how 

 the state can manage its Outer Continental Shelf 

 resources. They're looking at the state's role under 

 the new federal extended jurisdiction law. And they 

 are attempting to develop a better maintenance, con- 

 trol and scheduling system for the state's 11 major 

 research vessels. 



The University of North Carolina Sea Grant College 

 Newsletter is published monthly by the University of 

 North Carolina Sea Grant College Program, 1235 

 Burlington Laboratories, Yarborough Drive, North 

 Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C. 27607. Vol. 4, 

 No. 7, July, 1977. Dr. B. J. Copeland, director. Written 

 and edited by Karen Jurgensen and Mary Day Mordecai, 

 Second-class postage paid at Raleigh, N.C. 27611. 



University of North Carolina 

 Sea Grant College Program 

 1235 Burlington Laboratories 

 North Carolina State University 

 Raleigh, N.C. 27607 



Second-class postage paid at Raleigh 

 N.C. 27611 



