‘Green’ Enclosure of Ocean Space – Déjà Vu?

The first wave of unilaterally declared environmental protection zones (starting with Canada’s Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act of 1970) may have been halted by the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Yet, a second wave now seems to be gaining momentum: the French ‘ecological protection zone in the Mediterranean’ of April 2003 (promptly emulated by Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy), the British ‘environment (protection and preservation) zone’ around the Chagos Archipelago of September 2003, and the US ‘marine national monument’ around the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands of June 2006, all claiming new environmental regulatory powers in sea areas way beyond territorial waters. This viewpoint article questions the unilateral legitimation of those claims, and postulates a trusteeship ethos and fiduciary accountability for ocean governance in these areas.