Global Commons and the Law of the Sea

'Global Commons’ refers to resource domains or areas that lie outside of the political reach of any one State, including sea areas beyond national jurisdiction and Antarctica. The concept of ‘global commons’ is a living concept and can accommodate, over time, other commons at the international level, such as biodiversity and generic resources. The outlook for the global marine commons is not encouraging: fishery resources continue to deplete, marine biodiversity continues to reduce, and plastic wastes in the oceans continue to increase. In international law, there are legal regimes governing global marine commons, the most important of which is the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC). Effective as of 1994 LOSC governs the high seas, international seabed and its resources, marine environmental protection, and fisheries.Global Commons and the Law of the Sea offers intellectual discussions on global marine commons. It contains six parts respectively addressing the principle of the common heritage of mankind (CHM), freedoms of high seas, deep sea mining and international seabed, area beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) governance, management of geoengineering and generic resources, and recent developments in the polar regions.

"This book can be an important source of literature to gain a comprehensive understanding of some of the underexplored but significant topics. It can be of immense value to legal practitioners and academics who wish to pursue research on some of the emerging areas in the law of the sea." - Mohit Gupta, in: Indian Journal of International Law 59(1–4) (2021), 489–491 "The Global Commons and the Law of the Sea provides an excellent overview of the challeneges - legal, political, and envionrmental - of managing our global ocean commons. While the focus is on the Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC), the 16 chapters also address the relevance of other treaties and general priciples of international law. The editor, Keyuan Zou, has brought together and eminent group of international legal experts, including from China, Japan and South Korea, providing a depth of insight that students, professors, and practiitioners of international ocean law and policy will benefit from." - Kristina M. Gjerde, Senior High Seas Advisor, IUCN Global Marina and Polar Programme, Cambridge, MA, USA, in: Ocean Yearbook 34 (Brill | Nijhoff; 2020)

Keyuan Zou, Ph.D. in International Law (1989), is Harris Professor of International Law at the University of Central Lancashire, United Kingdom. He has published extensively in the field of international law, in particular the law of the sea.