International Law and Ocean Governance: Audacity and Modesty

Abstract

The 1998 Lisbon Declaration, adopted in the light of the findings of the Independent World Commission on the Oceans, chaired by Mário Soares, assumes, according to its own words, ‘a new perspective towards the ocean’, that combines five elements: unity, urgency, potential, opportunity and trusteeship. For the Commission, ‘it is necessary to abandon the traditional view of the ocean as divided into a number of separate and distinct oceans. ... Citizens and leaders need to acquire this sense of unity as the basis for future governance of the ocean’. This shift, the consolidation of ‘a lasting relationship of public trust between humanity and the ocean ... draws upon the ideas, policies, institutions and enforcement procedures needed to protect the ocean’.