Niels Krabbe

Senior Lecturer

Department of Law

Telephone

+46 31-786 55 82

Mail

niels.krabbe@law.gu.se

Visiting address

Vasagatan 1

41124 Göteborg

Postal address

Box 650

40530 Göteborg

About Niels Krabbe

Niels Krabbe is an international legal researcher particularly interested in ocean governance and the regulation of biodiversity, climate and natural resources in the law of the sea and international environmental law. He combines his research and teaching with a position as special adviser on the law of the sea with the Government Offices of Sweden.

In addition to his academic work he has extensive experience from working with law of the sea policy. As deputy director with the Department for International Law, Human Rights and Treaty Law at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Sweden he was involved in the final negotiations of the new UN oceans agreeement (BBNJ) and he has been co-chair of the EU working party on the law of the sea (COMAR). He has also served as legal expert on the committee for the Swedish Government Official Report preparing Sweden's ratification of the BBNJ and proposing the Swedish Legal act for areas beyond national jurisdiction. Much of his research and teaching builds on the combination of perspectives from academia and policy.

He is the 2025 Baltic Sea laureate and recipient of the 2025 French Institute Award (FINA).

His doctoral thesis "Bioprospecting and Deep-Sea Genetic Resources in a Fragmenting International Law" (defended June 2021) examined norm conflicts between different regimes of international law with a focus on genetic resources and biotechnology. Subsequent publications have focused on how the impact of marine protected areas on shipping and how the law of the sea can be applied and developed to promote climate services and conservation objectives in protected areas. He is currently involved in several research projects, including:

Exploring the legal-scientific nexus to guide shipping measures under the new global oceans agreement (Chalmers Transport Area of Advance)
Understanding Ocean Carbon - Ocean ICU (Horizon Europe)
Protect Baltic (Horizon Europe)
Shipping and offshore wind
Ocean Justice

Niels is course director for the advanced level courses Law of the Sea (HRS501) and Environmental Law (HRS250). He also teaches international law at the LLM program's first cycle.

Research areas

International law
International law and climate
Maritime Law
Law of the sea
International Environmental law
Marine Governance Law

Research in progress

Exploring the legal-scientific nexus to guide shipping measures under the new global oceans agreement (Chalmers Transport Area of Advance)
Understanding Ocean Carbon - Ocean ICU (Horizon Europe)
Protect Baltic (Horizon Europe)
Shipping and offshore wind
Ocean Justice

Teaching areas

International Law
Inernational Environmental Law
Law of the sea