Research areas: law of the sea, energy law, EU/EEA law, international trade law, international investment law, nuclear law.

Child Law, Indigenous Law, Children Rights, Climate Rights, Legal Pluralism, Decolonisation of Law, Indigenous Methodology, Child Participatory Research

My research interests primarily relate to the law of the sea, international fisheries law, environmental law issues, management, and regulation of different environmental impacts. I broadly research environmental issues in the fisheries sector, sustainable transitions, ecosystem-based management, and the implementation of legal frameworks, both nationally and internationally. I also have a general interest in international environmental law and human rights. 

I have recently written a PhD titled "Charting the Implementation of the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries in Tuna RFMOs: Challenges and Opportunities for Future Conservation of Non-Target Species." In my dissertation, I developed a case study examining how states can collaborate regionally to achieve more sustainable fisheries management, with a particular focus on the duty and responsibility to reduce ghost fishing.

I engage in both doctrinal legal research and empirical legal research, and I participate in several interdisciplinary initiatives related to my research interests.

Richard Barnes is Professor of International Law at the University of Lincoln and Adjunct Professor of Law at the Norwegian Centre for the Law of the Sea, the University of Tromsø.
 
He is widely published in the fields of international law and law of the sea. Property Rights and Natural Resources (2009), won the SLS Birks Book Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship. In addition, he has edited five highly regarded collections of essays including Frontiers in International Environmental Law. Oceans and Climate. Essays in Honour of David Freestone (2021), the Research Handbook on Climate Change, Oceans and Coasts (2020), and The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea: A Living Instrument (2016). His current research includes a research handbook on plastics regulation, and papers on the human right to property, ocean commons, and the BBNJ Agreement
 
Professor Barnes a member of the ILA Committee on the Protection of People at Sea. He is on the Editorial Board of International and Comparative Law Quarterly, the International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law, the New Zealand Yearbook of International Law, the German Yearbook of International Law, and the Portuguese Yearbook of the Law of the Sea. He is a member of the ILA Committee on Protection of People at Sea.
 
He has acted as a consultant for a range of public and private bodies, including the WWF, Oceana, ClinetEarth, the European Parliament, the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office. He also provided advice to foreign ministries.  He has appeared numerous times before Parliamentary select committees on matters related to law of the sea, fisheries and Brexit.