This book is open access under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license. It explores the diverse phenomena which are challenging the international law of the sea today, using the unique perspective of a simultaneous analysis of the national, individual and common interests at stake. This perspective, which all the contributors bear in mind when treating their own topic, also constitutes a useful element in the effort to bring today’s legal complexity and fragmentation to a homogenous vision of the sustainable use of the marine environment and of its resources, and also of the international and national response to maritime crimes.The volume analyzes the relevant legal frameworks and recent developments, focusing on the competing interests which have influenced State jurisdiction and other regulatory processes. An analysis of the competing interests and their developments allows us to identify actors and relevant legal and institutional contexts, retracing how and when these elements have changed over time.

"The British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) organized the 'UNCLOS at 30' conference on 22-23 November 2012 in Belfast, which inspired the launching of this book project. All of the contributing authors spoke at the conference...and most of their chapters have evolved from their presentations"--Page vii.

It is no surprise that the subject "The Future of the Law of the Sea" meets with special interest in the Netherlands. "The sea is our element, the roaring sea our glory," as the old folksong says. For a nation whose and prosperity are so closely connected with the sea, it is of the fate utmost importance to which regime the nations that border upon, sail and exploit the sea are subjected. Until recently nobody worried about the legal regime of the sea. The principle of the freedom of the sea, since Hugo Grotius one of the strongest, hardly assailable, principles of inter national law, was it not of paramount importance for the Netherlands? Since the Second World War this security does not exist any more. International Law is shaken in its foundations. This law, once anchored in the sense of justice of the then leading nations, which certainly did not think similarly, but to a certain extent along the same lines, has been shaken by the development of groups which no longer accept these rules as the guiding principle of their actions. The alarmingly scant willingness among the younger nations to accept the compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court, and the scarce assignments conferred to that Court, bear witness to this crisis. More and more International Law is traversed by economical, sociological, political and power factors which are pushing aside the conceptions of law once considered stable.

A counterintuitive and compelling argument that existing laws already protect the entirety of our oceans—and a call to understand and enforce those protections. The world’s oceans face multiple threats: the effects of climate change, pollution, overfishing, plastic waste, and more. Confronted with the immensity of these challenges and of the oceans themselves, we might wonder what more can be done to stop their decline and better protect the sea and marine life. Such widespread environmental threats call for a simple but significant shift in reasoning to bring about long-overdue, elemental change in the way we use ocean resources. In Future Sea, ocean advocate and marine-policy researcher Deborah Rowan Wright provides the tools for that shift. Questioning the underlying philosophy of established ocean conservation approaches, Rowan Wright lays out a radical alternative: a bold and far-reaching strategy of 100 percent ocean protection that would put an end to destructive industrial activities, better safeguard marine biodiversity, and enable ocean wildlife to return and thrive along coasts and in seas around the globe. Future Sea is essentially concerned with the solutions and not the problems. Rowan Wright shines a light on existing international laws intended to keep marine environments safe that could underpin this new strategy. She gathers inspiring stories of communities and countries using ocean resources wisely, as well as of successful conservation projects, to build up a cautiously optimistic picture of the future for our oceans—counteracting all-too-prevalent reports of doom and gloom. A passionate, sweeping, and personal account, Future Sea not only argues for systemic change in how we manage what we do in the sea but also describes steps that anyone, from children to political leaders (or indeed, any reader of the book), can take toward safeguarding the oceans and their extraordinary wildlife.

Explores how the law of the sea can develop in support of the objectives of the United Nations climate regime.

Recent maritime disputes, environmental disasters, and piracy have raised the profile of the law of the sea. This Oxford Handbook brings together high-level analysis of all of its key aspects, examining the role of particular regions in the development of the law of the sea, management of the oceans' resources, and critical contemporary debates.

This textbook on the law of the sea sets the subject in the context of public international law. It comprehensively covers the principal topics of the course, from the legal regimes governing the different jurisdictional zones, to international co-operation for protection of the marine environment and marine living resources.