‘All threats to the sea come from humans’: how lawyers are gearing up to fight for the oceans

A rising number of lawsuits in courts around the world are holding governments and corporations to account for their treatment of the seas and those who rely on them

A few years ago, Anna von Rebay gave up her lucrative job in a corporate law firm specialising in art law to concentrate on her passion for the ocean. All threats to the sea come from humans, who behave as though nature is nothing more than a resource," says Von Rebay, who works in Germany and Indonesia. But the ocean can't stand up for itself."

Inspired by a rising wave of lawsuits seeking to hold governments and companies to account for climate action, she set up Ocean Vision Legal, a law firm with a unique remit: to litigate on the ocean's behalf.