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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Karen McVeigh

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

A woman wearing a pink rash vest sitting on a surfboard in the sea
Anna Von Rebay, who set up the law firm Ocean Vision Legal to litigate on behalf of the ocean. Photograph: Reinhard Michel/Raw Ocean Photography

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.

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