Conclusion

The disagreement between China and the United States over maritime rights in the South China Sea has become the leading maritime point of friction. But that dispute is just one part of more fundamental change at work in how the world governs the oceans, one that has moved away from the idea of freedom of the seas. A central question is whether the UN Convention’s compromise on the oceans can endure. The Convention increased national sovereignty over parts of the oceans but also created mechanisms of international control. What emerged from that compromise is a complex, hybrid system of governance that relies on national governments but also a variety of international and regional organizations and international courts. Part of that compromise is a narrower version of freedom of the seas, but pressure from multiple directions is rendering even a limited version of that long-standing doctrine increasingly fragile.