Maritime spatial planning. Interests, legal situation, practice, future development Maritime spatial planning has gained significance not only through stipulations in the spatial planning plans of the coastal states of the Federal Republic of Germany, but recently due to the preparation of plans for the Exclusive Economic Zone in the North and Baltic Seas, something that was almost unimaginable in the past. The coordination of different uses and protection requirements in space was previously exclusively shore-based, but is thus now also being implemented in maritime space. This is the background against which this publication presents a closer systematic examination and evaluation of the most important maritime-related agendas, like the economic and the environmental. The pertinent legal regime – focussing particularly on the extent of its jurisdiction in the wake of the Lisbon Treaty – is also discussed. The ARL working group has drawn on intra- and interdisciplinary cooperation to produce a compendium intended to reflect the current state of development in this field. With this in mind: consideration is first given to a description of the maritime conditions upon which spatial planning activities impinge (Section I); then the regularly conflicting economic utilisations and environmental interests – including ecosystem protection – are more closely examined with attention being given to their seaward particularities and their varying perspectives (Section II); following this the associated legal questions are dealt with (Section III), thus providing a background for focusing on the spatial planning plans that have now been produced for the sea (Section IV); and finally suggestions are derived for the further development of maritime-related spatial planning and spatial planning law (Section V).