Law for a Living World

Abstract

In Oregon, public hearings, regulatory workshops, tribal consultations, and environmental assessments are shaping debates over the possible emergence of a floating offshore wind industry. At stake is whether such an industry will emerge there, and if so, at what scale (see Kathleen Sullivan, this issue). The question might appear technical, as a matter of turbines, transmission lines, and seabed leases. But while it is certainly often framed as political, it is also deeply legal. It concerns how law anticipates, authorises, and gives form to a future in which wind and ocean become resources and an emergent form of oceanic industrialisation is rendered thinkable and governable.