Green cables – Development, opportunities and legal challenges; Part-II

ABSTRACT Modern submarine cables, largely known for their application in telecommunications and for providing connectivity whilst at sea, are increasingly being explored as marine environmental monitoring tools. Such submarine cables are often referred to as “telecom-marine data cables”, “SMART cables”, or simply “green cables”. Though submarine telecommunication cables have been granted unique rights and freedoms by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), but how are these to be treated and applied while gathering data for Marine Scientific Research (MSR), given national restrictions and sensitivities, is something that remains undefined in UNCLOS, and consequently, often ends up becoming the subject of a series of long-running disagreements between various States. This article is in two parts. While Part-1 has already appeared in the Winter 2018 Edition of Maritime Affairs and dealt with the developments and opportunities of the green cables. This concluding part lays special emphasis on the legal considerations involved in employing such dual-purpose cable and the efforts that can be made to address them.