Sovereignty at Sea

Abstract

Reflect how close by now we were, to defeat, emaciated by hunger, exhausted by storms, by climates And seas beyond all our experience, So weary of promises dashed, So often driven to despair beneath Heavens with scarcely one familiar star And hostile to the kind of men we are! Our provisions were thoroughly rancid; To consume them made our bodies worse While nothing brought any comfort, In pursuing such fleeting hopes! Would you believe that had our company Of soldiers not been Portuguese, They would have remained so long obedient To their king and to me, their king's agent? – Luis de Camoes, The Lusiads Oceans have become the quintessential metaphor for globalization. People, ideas, germs, plants, and capital move in transnational and crossregional currents, while global trends and migrants arrive on shore in waves. Behind this choice of language is the image of the sea as a conduit for exchange but not a place of significance independent of those flows. The idea of the ocean as a backdrop for movement informs a narrative of globalization as a story of increasing interconnectedness. It begins with European transoceanic trade and moves through successive transportation revolutions, each enhancing the supposedly frictionless, undifferentiated nature of ocean space. A narrative about the law of the sea has run parallel to this story. From Grotius on, the law of the sea has featured prominently in the history of international law.