The Guide contains information about essential components and sub-components of marine spatial planning legislation, describing each and highlighting its role and significance. The Guide also provides examples of textual provisions from existing marine spatial planning laws and regulations, along with sample provisions prepared by the authors, to illustrate how legislative or regulatory language can address each component. Appendix A contains a list of marine spatial planning laws to which the legal drafter can refer. Because this is a relatively new area of legal development, there is a correspondingly limited (and largely recent) set of laws. The drafter should draw from the available laws where useful, but realize that they are offered as examples—and not necessarily as models. The primary audience for this Guide are legal drafters from ocean and coastal states where the development of marine spatial planning legislation is under consideration. Secondarily, policymakers and non-lawyer government officials from these states can benefit from gaining a better understanding of how marine spatial planning is incorporated into law.
