Legal Aspects of Safety, Health and Welfare on the United Kingdom Continental Shelf

Abstract

In this chapter it is proposed to consider the laws relating to safety, health and welfare on the continental shelf of the United Kingdom. The particular legislation is considered briefly later, as well as liability insurance for employers. However, before reviewing such legislation, and to appreciate its evolution, it is important to note how international law has come to recognise the jurisdictional claims of coastal states over the waters of their continental shelf, long regarded as the high seas, in what is now known as the continental shelf doctrine.