Global Governance and the International Law of the Sea

What is it about?

The book analyses the international legal rules applying to the continental shelf from the perspective of international relations (IR) theories, primarily global governance theory. “Global governance” is a network of formal and informal bundles of rules, principles, practices, and actors that define and regulate social interactions and manage common affairs at the transnational level. The continental shelf’s governance framework can be broader or narrower than the legal regime; for example, by adding informal rules or by ignoring formal “black letter” rules that are not implemented in practice. This broader perspective assists international legal scholars to better conceive and explain certain developments and trends in the narrower legal regime that the legal perspective alone cannot adequately explain. Such analysis generates new insights regarding past evolution and current developments of legal rules and actors in this sphere. Furthermore, this perspective may also facilitate some forecasts of future developments, such as possible emergence of new rules, actors, and institutional design; as well as generating proposals for better mechanisms to cope with new challenges arising in this significant sphere of international law. To illustrate the contribution of governance theory and other IR theories to the analysis of the continental shelf’s legal regime, the book analyses in depth three significant issues: (i) demarcation and delimitation of the continental shelf; (ii) the rights and obligations of coastal states in the continental shelf; and (iii) procedural issues regarding the continental shelf and international maritime adjudication.

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Why is it important?

This study offers an innovative and broader IR perspective that sheds new light on this well-researched legal field, by exposing hidden or underexplored interactions between legal regimes and other institutional arrangements. As we expose these patterns of behaviour, we learn more about the international system and the roles each actor plays within the system.