"America is the most prosperous nation in the world, with a strong military, abundant natural resources, innovative and industrious people, wonderful neighbors in Canada and Mexico, and formidable natural borders in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic Oceans. America is also founded upon a strong democracy dating back to the Founding Fathers. But from time to time, America has had a propensity for self-inflicted wounds. This book is about one such self-inflicted-and still festering-wound. That is the failure to take advantage of one of the most remarkable negotiating wins in the history of the nation; the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)"--

In the late twentieth century, as the United Nations struggled to come up with a new legal system for the oceans, one woman saw the opportunity to promote radical new ideas of justice and internationalism. Ocean governance expert Elisabeth Mann Borgese (1918-2002) spent decades working with the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention. Throughout this sprawling series of global conferences, she navigated allegiances and enmities, intrigues and setbacks, fighting determinedly to develop a just ocean order.00Featuring extensive research and new interviews with Mann Borgese?s colleagues and family, this book explores timeless questions of justice and international collaboration and asks whether the extraordinary drive and vision of a single person can influence the course of international law. 00Also available in Open Access.

This book offers a detailed account of the legal issues concerning the British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Islands) by leading experts in the field. It examines the broader significance of the ongoing Bancoult litigation in the UK Courts, the Chagos Islanders' petition to the European Court of Human Rights and Mauritius' successful challenge, under the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea, to the UK government's creation of a Marine Protected Area around the Chagos Archipelago. This book, produced in response to the 50th anniversary of the BIOT's founding, also assesses the impact of the decisions taken in respect of the Territory against a wider background of decolonization while addressing important questions about the lawfulness of maintaining Overseas Territories in the post-colonial era.The chapter ‘Anachronistic As Colonial Remnants May Be...’ - Locating the Rights of the Chagos Islanders As A Case Study of the Operation of Human Rights Law in Colonial Territories is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license via link.springer.com.

In the last few decades, the law of the sea has been affected, not only by the processes of globalization that have changed the key interests of the international community, but also by natural phenomena like climate change. In addition, technological advances, having opened up new opportunities to exploit marine resources and to produce energy and which make the sea in itself a resource, have contributed to a further development of the law of the sea. This book contributes to the study of the evolution of the law of the sea and will not fail to be of interest to academics in the field. It analyzes those areas of the law of the sea in which the transformations taking place seem to be more significant, such as: migration by sea * the security of navigation and the fight against piracy * safety of navigation * protection of maritime labor * the legal framework governing the polar regions * special issues relating to the harnessing of marine resources. [Subject: Public International Law, Maritime Law, Environmental Law]

A collection of Brian Skerry's ocean photography, including sharks in the Bahamas, leatherback sea turtles in Trinidad, and right whales in the Auckland Islands.

Smuggling along the Chinese coast has been a thorn in the side of many regimes. From opium and weapons concealed aboard foreign steamships in the Qing dynasty to nylon stockings and wristwatches trafficked in the People’s Republic, contests between state and smuggler have exerted a surprising but crucial influence on the political economy of modern China. Seeking to consolidate domestic authority and confront foreign challenges, states introduced tighter regulations, higher taxes, and harsher enforcement. These interventions sparked widespread defiance, triggering further coercive measures. Smuggling simultaneously threatened the state’s power while inviting repression that strengthened its authority. Philip Thai chronicles the vicissitudes of smuggling in modern China—its practice, suppression, and significance—to demonstrate the intimate link between illicit coastal trade and the amplification of state power. China’s War on Smuggling shows that the fight against smuggling was not a simple law enforcement problem but rather an impetus to centralize authority and expand economic controls. The smuggling epidemic gave Chinese states pretext to define legal and illegal behavior, and the resulting constraints on consumption and movement remade everyday life for individuals, merchants, and communities. Drawing from varied sources such as legal cases, customs records, and popular press reports and including diverse perspectives from political leaders, frontline enforcers, organized traffickers, and petty runners, Thai uncovers how different regimes policed maritime trade and the unintended consequences their campaigns unleashed. China’s War on Smuggling traces how defiance and repression redefined state power, offering new insights into modern Chinese social, legal, and economic history.

Wilhelm G. Grewe's "Epochen der Völkerrechtsgeschichte", published in 1984, is widely regarded as one of the classic twentieth century works of international law. This revised translation by Michael Byers of Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, makes this important book available to non-German readers for the first time. "The Epocs of International Law" provides a theoretical overview and detailed analysis of the history of international law from the Middle Ages, to the Age of Discovery and the Thirty Years War, from Napoleon Bonaparte to the Treaty of Versailles, the Cold War and the Age of the Single Superpower, and does so in a way that reflects Grewe's own experience as one of Germany's leading diplomats and professors of international law. A new chapter, written by Wilhelm G. Grewe and Michael Byers, updates the book to October 1998, making the revised translation of interest to German international layers, international relations scholars and historians as well. Wilhelm G. Grewe was one of Germany's leading diplomats, serving as West German ambassador to Washington, Tokyo and NATO, and was a member of the International Court of Arbitration in The Hague. Subsequently professor of International Law at the University of Freiburg, he remains one of Germany's most famous academic lawyers. Wilhelm G. Grewe died in January 2000. Professor Dr. Michael Byers, Duke University, School of Law, Durham, North Carolina, formerly a Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, and a visiting Fellow of the Max-Planck-Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg.