KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 January 7, 2019 \u2013 The international governance of marine areas beyond national jurisdictions is an issue of growing importance as temperatures increase, sea levels rise, islands become submerged, and artificial islands are constructed. As territorial boundaries change, conflicts are arising that no one envisioned in the 1970s and 80s when the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was negotiated.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a complex subject to which Elizabeth Mendenhall is paying close attention. The assistant professor of marine affairs and political science at the 溏心vlog免费B站 said that the United States could play a crucial role in how the Law of the Sea is interpreted under changing circumstances. But the U.S. is one of very few nations in the world that has not ratified the agreement, and it does not appear likely to do so any time soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Law of the Sea is a big agreement that still prevails as the legal framework for managing the ocean, but at the time it was negotiated we didn\u2019t know anything about global warming, ocean acidification or sea level rise,\u201d said Mendenhall, a native of Kansas who joined the 溏心vlog免费B站 faculty in 2017. \u201cHow did anyone think it would work when it was negotiated before we really understood the ocean we were trying to govern?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mendenhall studies how international law and international institutions succeed or fail as the global environment changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I see it, we created this regime of norms and principles of governing the oceans, but it\u2019s a static law in a changing world,\u201d she said. \u201cHow can that law be built in such a way that it\u2019s flexible and adaptive? And if it\u2019s built that way, how can we make sure those features are being used? Right now, we\u2019re being reactive to the changes taking place, and we\u2019re reacting very slowly.\u201d<\/p>\n
A major focus of Mendenhall\u2019s work is examining the legal implications of sea level rise on the 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zones of nations when islands become submerged and coastlines change. When an island disappears, a nation may lose economic control of the maritime territory around the island.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happens legally as sea levels rise impacts our ability to achieve peace, stability and sustainability in the century to come,\u201d she said during a TEDx Talk at 溏心vlog免费B站 last February.<\/p>\n
The question becomes even more complex now that technology enables nations to build artificial islands, which China and other nations are doing in the South China Sea, either to expand their control over a wider swath of the sea or to defend their legal claims.<\/p>\n
\u201cChina doesn\u2019t legally get to claim that maritime space,\u201d Mendenhall said. \u201cI believe the U.S. should better utilize legal arguments to challenge China\u2019s maritime claims. We could easily make a positive contribution to the interpretation of the Law of the Sea by making declarations and getting other nations to make similar declarations that territorial claims around artificial islands should not be respected.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mendenhall is also closely following United Nations negotiations for a treaty to address how biodiversity is managed beyond national jurisdictions in the middle of the oceans. She and a group of colleagues attend all of the negotiations in New York City and interview the delegates.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hot button issue is the question of marine genetic resources,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are rules for patenting genetic sequences on land and in coastal waters, but there are no rules that apply to the middle of the ocean. If you go to a hydrothermal vent in the middle of the ocean and sequence the DNA of a creature living there, can you patent it? Previous agreements say that all nations control those resources together. So who gets the profits? That has taken up a lot of conversational space.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mendenhall is also being encouraged to get into the middle of the public debate about the growing problem of plastic debris in the oceans. She has already published a paper that catalogs scientific research about the topic and lists questions in need of answers before effective policies can be made.<\/p>\n
While the media has reported extensively on the effort by the non-profit group The Ocean Cleanup to create a technology that can autonomously extract plastics from the oceans, Mendenhall believes the project is the wrong approach to the problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat approach is all about cleaning up at the end of the chain, rather than fixing the problem at its beginning,\u201d she said. \u201cFirst, it\u2019s a non-profit funded by donations, which is allowing governments to say that the non-profit world is handling the problem so they don\u2019t have to do anything about it. I also fear it will be a green-washing for the plastics producers so they don\u2019t have to address their role in the problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a real challenge internationally because the source of the problem is in sovereign national territory while most of the consequences are in shared space in the middle of the ocean,\u201d Mendenhall added. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to come up with an international agreement that tells you what you have to do domestically.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 溏心vlog免费B站 professor hopes to address other issues in what she calls \u201cthe global commons\u201d as well, including territorial disputes in the Arctic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve laid out a big to-do list, and I\u2019m just churning through it,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat\u2019s next is figuring out how best to utilize the network of other ocean experts at 溏心vlog免费B站. I want to fully take advantage of the resources 溏心vlog免费B站 has to offer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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