Neil Craik

Neil Craik is a Professor of Law at the University of Waterloo with appointments to the Balsillie School of International Affairs and the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development, where he teaches and researches in the fields of international and Canadian environmental law. His current research examines the legal structure of global commons regimes, with particular interests in deep seabed mining regulation, climate and geoengineering law and governance, and environmental impact assessment. He is the co-author of Liability for Environmental Harm to the Global Commons (Cambridge University press, 2023), and The International Law of Environmental Impact Assessment (Cambridge University Press, 2008). His work has been published in leading international law journals, such as International and Comparative Law Quarterly, Transnational Environmental Law and the Chicago Journal of International Law, as well as interdisciplinary journals, including Science, Marine Policy and npj Ocean Sustainability. Professor Craik periodically provides advice to a variety of national governments, international organizations and non-governmental organizations on environmental matters. From 2011 to 2017, and from 2022-24, Professor Craik served as the Director of the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development at the University of Waterloo.

• 2006, S.J.D. Faculty of Law, University of Toronto

• 1996, LL.M. Graduate School of Law, University of Edinburgh

• 1991, LL.B. Faculty of Law, Dalhousie University

• 1988, B.A. (hons.) McGill University

• 2024 Canadian Council on International Law, Scholarly Book Award (for Liability for Environmental Harm to the Global Commons)

• 2023 Outstanding Performance Award (University of Waterloo)

• 2014 Outstanding Performance Award (University of Waterloo)

• 2010-11 Econoving Global Fellow, (Université de Versailles Saint Quentin-en-Yvelines, France)

• 2007 Harrison McCain Foundation Young Scholar Award (University of New Brunswick)

• ENVS 201 - Introduction to Canadian Environmental Law
  • Taught in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2026
• ENVS 401 - Canadian Law, Indigenous Peoples, and Natural Resource Development
  • Taught in 2021, 2022, 2024
• SUSM 601 - Foundations for Sustainability Management
  • Taught in 2022, 2023

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• (2023). Liability for Environmental Harm to the Global Commons (Cambridge University Press) (with T. Davenport and R. Mackenzie), 287 pages (monograph) (recipient of 2024 CCIL Scholarly Book Award)

• (2008). The International Law of Environmental Impact Assessment: Process, Substance and Integration, (Cambridge University Press, 2008), 350 pages (monograph)

• (2018). Global Environmental Change and Innovation in International Law, (Cambridge University Press). (Co-editor with C. Jefferies, S. Seck and T. Stephens), 341 pages.

• Tracey, H. E., & Craik, N. (2026). Assessing Antarctic Marine Bioprospecting Governance in the Light of the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement: Competence, Comprehensiveness, and Coherence. Transnational Environmental Law, 1-38

• Lidström, Susanna, Neil Craik, Joan M. Alfaro-Lucas, Diva J. Amon, Narissa Bax, Ana Colaço, Bobbi-Jo Dobush et al. "Deep differences: expanding the marine social sciences and humanities into the deep ocean." npj Ocean Sustainability 5, no. 1 (2026): 24

• Craik, N., & Scott, K. N. (2026). Environmental Impact Assessment Under the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement and the Equivalence Exception. The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law, 41(2), 244-288

• Craik, N., Jackson, J., Jaeckel, A., Lily, H., Singh, P., & Tracey, H. (2025). The International Seabed Authority, the problem of disregard and the case for administrative accountability. International & Comparative Law Quarterly, 74(S1), 267-289

• Motlaghzadeh, K., Craik, N., Moreno-Cruz, J., Schweizer, V., Fuhrman, J., & Hipel, K. W. (2025). Applying equity principles leads to higher carbon removal obligations in Canada. Communications Earth & Environment, 6(1), 88

• Craik, N. (2025). Equitable marine carbon dioxide removal: the legal basis for interstate benefit-sharing. Climate Policy, 1-15

• Levin, Lisa A., Joan M. Alfaro-Lucas, Ana Colaço, Erik E. Cordes, Neil Craik, Roberto Danovaro, Henk-Jan Hoving et al. "Deep-sea impacts of climate interventions." Science 379, no. 6636 (2023): 978-981

• Craik, N. (2020). The duty to cooperate in the customary law of environmental impact assessment. International & Comparative Law Quarterly, 69(1), 239-259

• Craik, N. (2019). The duty to cooperate in international environmental law: Constraining state discretion through due respect. Yearbook of International Environmental Law, 30(1), 22-44