Governing Global Commons

The regulation and enforcement of the oceans is very difficult. The Law of the Sea Convention and other landmark legal instruments have brought important progress over the past two decades in protecting fisheries and marine ecosystems. Issues of ocean governance include the regulation of marine resources such as fish, oil, gas, polymetallic nodules, and energy generation from the seas, the prevention of pollution, and the conservation of biological diversity and are framed in a variety of binding and non-binding instruments to change behavior and contribute to sustainable governance of the ocean. Law establishes different maritime zones in which states have different rights and duties, in which states have sovereign rights, while the high seas are beyond national jurisdiction. There are exclusive economic zones in which coastal states have exclusive rights, and global commons that are open use to everybody, but there is no global police force or international regulating agency.

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