Exploring Norway’s Ocean Governance Aptitude against United Nations Global Compact Principles for Sustainable Oceans

Abstract

Abstract For many decades, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (unclos) has provided the legal framework for the development of regulations for the protection of the oceans and marine resources. Further to that, and in an ever-changing policy and legal landscape, the United Nations Global Compact (ungc), with its sub-principles for the protection of the oceans, refers to one of the many United Nations (UN) voluntary initiatives that seeks to provide a framework for responsible business practices across maritime sector. In addition, and as a move to comply with the recent United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (sdg s), the ungc has been revised to meet the requirements of sdg 14 for underwater protection and sustainable ocean business conduct. In the wake of such trends, this study explores the context of Norway’s governance framework and, in particular, the extent to which this regime has addressed the principles of the United Nations Global Compact for Sustainable Oceans. Framed by a socio-legal methodological approach, it achieves this by reviewing and contrasting Norwegian ocean policy and regulatory structure with ungc principles for sustainable ocean and marine resource use. We conclude that Norwegian ocean policy and legal status indicate positive transitional standards and perspectives for their harmonization with the ungc principles and, consequently, with the requirements of the sdg 14.