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Evolution of the international regime for oceans under the hobessian image view

Abstract:

The evolution of the international regime for the oceans use, was materialized in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which regulates sovereignty and rights over maritime spaces and its resources. This paper analyses the historical stages established by Keohane and Nye (1988), under the conceptual view proposed by Hobbes in Chap. 13 of Leviathan, regarding the natural condition of men and the anarchic state of nature similar to war. According to Hobbes, a government or a common power would avoid anarchy and conflict. However, after the UNCLOS was established, disputes arose in the process of defining maritime zones and boundaries between neighboring coastal states, expecting to obtain more resources and spaces at sea. Thus, conflict may be diminished in the presence of a common power represented by an international regime or authority, but not completely eliminated. That is man’s nature.