Niels Krabbe
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. 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