Ocean Governance and the Law of the Sea

In order to more clearly outline ocean governance and maritime security, this paper surveys the existing legal framework for ocean management and it will also look into the question of how capable concerned states are individually and internationally to enforce the agreed regulations. Indeed, ocean governance and the Law of the Sea cannot be thought without each other. Both are ambitious in their scope to go far beyond providing a mere practical order of the sea to facilitate its exploitation: they work towards building a maritime foundation for humanity to peacefully flourish in a way that does not endanger future generations. The nature of the ocean makes this approach more obvious than elsewhere, but ultimately, in Elisabeth Mann Borgese’s hopeful words, ‘the principle of the Common Heritage of Mankind […] becomes the foundation of sustainable development, not only in the oceans, but globally.’ (Mann Borgese, The Oceanic Circle - Governing the Seas as a Global Resource [Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 1998]., p. 105) In this however, the Law of the Sea constantly has to balance conflicting sovereign interests. In consequence, for example, to not infringe upon flag state jurisdiction, it is rather restrictive when it comes to prosecuting organised crime, terrorism, drug- or people-smuggling, illegal fishing and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Therefore, visionary ideas behind the legal framework cannot compensate for its deficits in addressing a number of vital fields of ocean governance and maritime security. Not only changing realities concerning unmanned vessels, cyber-attacks and complex human rights issues at sea are calling for more reliable international codification, indeed, advances in technology and rapid increases in all human activities at sea and on the seabed make further agreements necessary. (Warner, Robin and Kaye, Stuart, ed., Routledge Handbook of Maritime Regulation and Enforcement (London and New York: Routledge, 2016)., introduction) This not only fed the recent UN General Assembly decision to begin negotiating a new supplementary convention on ‘marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction’ (agreed on 24th Dec. 2017), it also proves that studying ocean governance cannot overlook the Law of the Sea, its state and evolution. This proposal is adapted from my ongoing PhD-project on Ocean Governance and Maritime Security in African Waters at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London.