The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) remains the cornerstone of global ocean governance. However, it lacks effective provisions or mechanisms to ensure that all ocean space and related problems are dealt with holistically. With seemingly no opportunity for revision due to the Conventions burdensome amendment provisions, complementary mechanisms dealing with such aspects of global ocean governance including maritime transport, fisheries, and marine environmental sustainability, have been developed under the aegis of the United Nations and other relevant international organizations. This approach is inherently fragmented and unable to achieve sustainable global ocean governance. In light of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly Goal 14, the IMLI Treatise proposes a new paradigm on the basis of integrated and cross-sectoral approach in order to realise a more effective and sustainable governance regime for the oceans. This volume focuses on the role of UN as the central intergovernmental organization responsible for global ocean governance. It examines the ocean governance challenges and how the present legal, policy, and institutional frameworks of the UN have addressed these challenges. It identifies the strengths and weaknesses of UN legal structures and offers tangible proposals to realize the ambition of a global ocean governance system.

The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) remains the cornerstone of global ocean governance. However, it lacks effective provisions or mechanisms to ensure that all ocean space and related problems are dealt with holistically. With seemingly no opportunity for revision due to the Conventions burdensome amendment provisions, complementary mechanisms dealing with such aspects of global ocean governance including maritime transport, fisheries, and marine environmental sustainability, have been developed under the aegis of the United Nations and other relevant international organizations. This approach is inherently fragmented and unable to achieve sustainable global ocean governance. In light of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly Goal 14, the IMLI Treatise proposes a new paradigm on the basis of integrated and cross-sectoral approach in order to realise a more effective and sustainable governance regime for the oceans. The volume examines how the IMO, with 171 Member States and 3 Associated Members, has and continues to promote the goals of safe, secure, sound, and efficient shipping on clean oceans. It studies the interface and interaction between UNCLOS and IMO instruments and how IMOs safety, security, and environmental protection conventions have contributed to global ocean governance, including the peaceful order of the polar regions.

The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) remains the cornerstone of global ocean governance. However, it lacks effective provisions or mechanisms to ensure that all ocean space and related problems are dealt with holistically. With seemingly no opportunity for revision due to the Conventions burdensome amendment provisions, complementary mechanisms dealing with such aspects of global ocean governance including maritime transport, fisheries, and marine environmental sustainability, have been developed under the aegis of the United Nations and other relevant international organizations. This approach is inherently fragmented and unable to achieve sustainable global ocean governance. In light of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly Goal 14, the IMLI Treatise proposes a new paradigm on the basis of integrated and cross-sectoral approach in order to realise a more effective and sustainable governance regime for the oceans. This volume focuses on the role of the UN Specialized Agencies towards the development of effective and sustainable ocean governance by looking at the more elaborate mechanisms they developed in order to achieve the desired objectives laid down in UNCLOS. From FAO to UNODC, the volume examines how they ensure sustainable development and how much coordination exists among them.

This authoritative Research Handbook offers wide-ranging coverage of both traditional and emerging topics dealing with the regulation of ocean space and highlights the key academic debates around ocean governance. It provides a formidable interface between the 1982 UNCLOS Convention and the international law regulating ocean governance, while influencing its further evolution through suggestions for future research in the field.

The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) has for four decades been considered by many to be one of the most important legislative achievements of international law. It is revered as a "constitution of the oceans", providing the legal framework for the governance of the oceans. This volume explores how the UNCLOS is functioning in various complex settings, how it adapts to new, emerging developments, as well as how it interacts with other regulation, both within the law of the sea regime and outside. Engaging in themes such as law and order at sea, UNCLOS’ interaction with human rights and the role of private actors, the book raises complex questions in the application, understanding, and enforcement of the convention and how it can be envisaged, interpreted, and used in a dynamic world. The volume also raises methodological questions, the answers to which may enhance the predictability and coherence of the law under UNCLOS and thus secure its role as the predominant and relevant system for legal governance at sea for many decades to come. As a contribution to ensuring the future relevance of UNCLOS, the book will be a valuable resource for scholars, diplomats, judges and other practitioners who are working with and interpreting the law of the sea and related issues of maritime law, migration law, human rights law and humanitarian law.

This volume explores options for a sustainable maritime domain, including maritime transportation, such as, Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP), maritime education and training, maritime traffic and advisory systems, maritime security. Other activities in the maritime domain covered in the book include small-scale fisheries and sustainable fisheries, and greening the blue economy. The book aims to provide the building blocks needed for a framework for good ocean governance; a framework that will serve through the next decade and, and hopefully, well beyond the 2030 milepost of the UN Agenda for Sustainable Development. In short, this book brings together the problems of the current world and sustainable solutions that are in the development process and will eventually materialize in the not so distant future. Additionally, the book presents a trans-disciplinary analysis of integral sustainable maritime transportation solutions and crucial issues relevant to good ocean governance that have recently been discussed at different national, regional and international fora, highlighting ongoing work to develop and support governance systems that facilitate industry requirements, and meet the needs of coastal states and indigenous peoples, of researchers, of spatial planners, and of other sectors dependent on the oceans. The book will be of interest to researchers across many disciplines, especially those that are engaged in cross-sectoral research and developments in the maritime transport sector and across the wider maritime domain. To this end, the book covers areas including natural and social sciences, geographical studies, spatial planning, maritime security and gender studies, as they relate to transport and the wider maritime sector. In addition, the book explores frameworks for sustainable ocean governance being developed under the UN’s Agenda for Sustainable Development to 2030. It will also look beyond the 2030 milepost under that Agenda, and will be of use to national and international policymakers and practitioners, government actors at the EU and other regional and national levels and to researchers of ocean governance, sustainability and management, and maritime transport.