Treasure trove or rubbish dump? In either case, oceans are being spoiled. Concepts from ‘mare liberum’ to ‘common heritage’ don’t safeguard the blue planet’s largest frontier from escalated seabed mining, industrialised fishing and waste disposal, nor global inequality and racialized violence. Could a democratic World Ocean Authority be the answer?
Chris Armstrong
is professor of political theory at the University of Southampton. He is the author of ‘A Blue New Deal’, ‘Global Distributive Justice: An introduction’, ‘Justice and Natural Resources: An Egalitarian Theory’ and ‘Why Global Justice Matters: Moral Progress in a Divided World’.