Justice on the Seafloor

This Article looks critically at the extension of sovereign rights to natural resources into the ocean commons. It focuses specifically on the continental shelf. I first account for the novelty of the continental shelf claims and the legal regime set by United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Then, I look at the structure, scope, and practice of sovereign rights to natural resources and assess the consequences of their application to this legally constructed underwater resource domain attached to the territory of a coastal state. The overall argument of this Article is that in the current form, sovereign rights do not promote justice in the ocean commons. Three distinct problematic consequences from the perspective of justice are analyzed: Distributive inequality, unjust politics of resource sovereignty, and legal and economic reification of marine ecosystems. In the conclusion, I raise the question of the role of sovereignty in the global commons and how to restructure it so that it meets the demands of safeguarding the ocean commons as an environmental planetary domain. The Article argues for the possibility of rethinking sovereignty in terms of Earth Trusteeship of the global commons based on a normative concept of sovereignty as trusteeship of humanity and the environment recently proposed in the philosophy of international law

Business · Continental shelf · Economic Justice · Political science · Seafloor Spreading · Sovereignty · Computer Science · Environmental law and policy · International Law and Human Rights · International Maritime Law Issues · Law · Geology · Oceanography · Paleontology