Law Commons^™

For several centuries, nations have negotiated arrangements for their mutual interests in the oceans. These negotiations accelerated tremendously over the past century. Today, a global framework treaty exists and is complemented both by regional arrangements and by treaties relating to specific ocean activities. The challenges to this regime are many. Enforcement is a pervasive challenge, while the collapse of many fisheries and increasing strains on the health of coastal ecosystems, as well as the ocean acidification that accompanies climate change, are both critical and daunting.