The European Commission, continuing its efforts to contribute to the integrated governance of global oceans, promotes harmonization of respective regimes in its Member States. In its assessment of this process in 2019, the Commission stressed in its joint report to the European Parliament and the Council that healthy oceans can exist only if responsibility for this dynamic natural ecosystem is shared not only between states, but also between different kinds of cross-border operating actors and stakeholders. The dynamics of the marine environment shall be reflected in an elastic legal regime based not only on classic legal instruments like conventions and their national implementations, but also on different kinds of soft laws, standards and formal specifications created by representatives of these stakeholders. However, admitting that integrated governance is the long-term goal, the European Union also accepts solutions based on a sectoral approach, as long as they effectively fulfill the duty to protect the marine environment enabling use of the sea for mankind and economical use of the ocean. Such a comprehensive view on the ocean is also the background of the UNCLOS co-operation.
Integrated ocean governance and its mechanisms must then be created and developed by very diverse organisations and institutions, from classical international organizations, through to intergovernmental cooperations at different levels and private organizations. This article summarizes the achievements of practical cooperation of EU mechanisms of ocean governance with non-governmental private organisations, representing the de facto decentralised management of the world oceans. Extended analysis will reveal how climate change is becoming a major long-term driver of ecosystems, bringing together different actors in an integrated, ecosystem-based oceans management approach which highlights the interplay between environmental and economic conditions, and legal mechanisms and their reflections in documents prepared by private organisations.

The purpose of this publication is to briefly present selected issues, that have been the subject of the work of the International Maritime Publication in the last two years. For IMO this was a period when the organization had to face very serious consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. It influenced not only the fate of thousands seafarers in this industry, but also the functioning of the Organization itself, forcing to adopt innovative and unprecedented solutions. Their effects are still clearly felt and have an impact on the current as well as future work. Authors would like to draw the attention, inter alia, on issues that have become pivotal in this difficult time and others that focus particularly on aspects related to seafarers’ rights, autonomous ships, fraudulent registration and fraudulent registries of ships, increasing safety in shipping, facilitating maritime trade and protection of maritime environment. Simultaneously, it is worth stressing out that the list of important issues presented in this paper is not exhaustive. The article also briefly presents the organizational structure of IMO.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), referred to as the “constitution of the seas and oceans”, established the legal regime of the seas and oceans. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has a mandate as a global legislative entity to further regulate maritime issues on the basis of many of its provisions. IMO is explicitly mentioned in only one of the articles of UNCLOS, while several provisions of the Convention on the Law of the Sea refer to the ‘competent international organization’ in connection with the adoption of international rules and standards for shipping in matters relating to maritime safety and the prevention, reduction and control of marine pollution by ships. Bearing in mind the global mandate of the Organization as a specialized agency within the United Nations system established by the Convention on the International Maritime Organization, the expression ‘competent international organization’, when used in the singular in UNCLOS, applies to IMO. From 1973 to 1982, the International Maritime Organization actively participated in the work of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea to ensure that the development of IMO instruments was in line with the fundamental principles of UNCLOS. By including in several IMO conventions provisions that clearly state that these conventions do not infringe the codification and development of the law of the sea in UNCLOS, many interpretation doubts have been minimized.