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Abstract
Since being described as a 'constitution for the oceans' at its adoption in 1982, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea ('LOSC') has evolved to hold a special status among multilateral treaties. As a constitution—actual or perceived—the LOSC has provided the framework and processes for a relatively dynamic law of the sea that has developed to address new environmental, technological and geopolitical challenges in the forty years since its adoption. By necessity however, these developments have been incremental in nature and have been confined by the parameters of the LOSC constitution. In this article, I argue that such incremental change will be insufficient if the law of the sea is to adapt to the Anthropocene, our current geological and geopolitical Epoch. In this article, I argue that the characterisation of the LOSC as a 'constitution for the oceans' has become a straitjacket for the regime and is preventing the serious exploration of alternative epistemological imaginaries of the law of the sea. I argue for a quiet abandonment of the description of the LOSC as a 'constitution for the oceans' and the actual and perceived consequences of the appellation.

In September 2002 seventeen whales were stranded off the coast of the CanaryIslands at a time when NATO was testing its active sonar system designed to detect silent enemy submarines.1The suggestion has been made that the use of sonar caused these whales to strand. In fact, sonar is just one of a variety of anthropogenic undersea sounds which, scientific research increasingly suggests, impacts negatively on marine biodiversity. Pollution of an acoustic nature is currently omitted from traditional works on the protection of the marine environment and is as yet the subject of very little jurisprudential discussion.2However the topic, which has received scientific attention for over 30 years, has recently been identified as acause for concern and consequently, for action, within the parameters of a number of global and regional environmental instruments.

Introduction to polar law /Karen N Scott and David L VanderZwaag --Polar regions in the Anthropocene /Colin Summerhayes, Jan Zalasiewicz, Davor Vidas and Mark Williams --The Antarctic Treaty System /Jill M Barrett --Arctic regional agreements and arrangements /Timo Koivurova, Pirjo Kleemola-Juntunen and Stefan Kirchner --People at the Poles /Sara L Seck and Sarah L MacLeod --Polar science diplomacy /Paul Arthur Berkman --The Arctic Ocean unscrambled : competing claims and boundary disputes /Ted L McDorman and Clive Schofield --Antarctic : competing claims and boundary disputes /Shirley V Scott --Emerging and non-traditional actors at the Poles /Nengye Liu --Southern Ocean fisheries /Marcus Haward --The evolving management of fisheries in the Arctic /Alf Håkon Hoel --Marine mammals at the Poles /Richard Caddell --Non-living resources and the Poles /Rachael Lorna Johnstone and Scott Joblin --Bioprospecting at the Poles /David Leary --Polar cruise tourism /Daniela Liggett and Emma J Stewart --Principles of environmental protection at the Poles /Robin Warner --Marine protected area networks at the Poles /Suzanne Lalonde --Polar shipping law /Kristin Bartenstein and Aldo Chircop --Global trajectories of chemical pollution : legal gaps and complexities in the Polar context /Sabaa A Khan and Seita Romppanen --Climate change and the Poles /Rosemary Rayfuse --Ocean acidification at the Poles : regional responses to marine environmental change in the Anthropocene /Tim Stephens --Evolution of a Polar law /Donald R Rothwell and Alan D Hemmings.

The Antarctic Treaty (1959) was adopted for the purpose of bringing peace and stability to Antarctica and to facilitate cooperation in scientific research conducted on and around the continent. It has now been over fifty years since the signing of the treaty, nevertheless security continues to drive and shape the laws and policy regime which governs the region. Antarctic Security in the Twenty-First Century: Legal and Policy Perspectives assess Antarctic security from multiple legal and policy perspectives. This book reviews the existing security construct in Antar.

Introduction : non-state actors, changing actors, and subjects of international law / Charles-Emmanuel Côté -- Sovereignty's accommodations : quasi-states as international lawmakers / Kathleen Claussen -- Quasi-States and sport : building a case for statehood / Ryan Gauthier -- Self-determination claimant groups and the creation of international norms / Amy Maguire -- Indigenous peoples as actors in international law-making : focusing on international environmental law / Yuko Osakada -- Legally sculpting a melting arctic : states, indigenous peoples and justice in multilateralism / Sabaa Ahmad Khan -- Legitimacy, participation, and international law-making : 'fixing' the restitution of cultural property to indigenous peoples / Shea Elizabeth Esterling -- Procedural barriers to indigenous peoples' participation in international lawmaking : extended continental shelf delimitation in Inuit Nunaat / Zhannah Voukitchevitch -- Non-state actors as invisible law makers? Domestic Implementation of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Standards / Mari Takeuchi -- Reorienting the role of nonstate actors in global climate governance / Jason MacLean -- The influence of the individual and the corporation on the state's exercise of jurisdiction under international law : the case of business and human rights arbitration / Sarah Castles -- Beyond the state : individual civil responsibility for violations of international law / Miriam Cohen -- Asymmetrical legal conflicts / Shiri Krebs -- Reconsidering the classification of extraterritorial conflict with armed groups in international humanitarian law / Shin Kawagishi -- The status of rebels in non-international armed conflict : do they have the right to life? / Kentaro Wani -- Non-state actors in international dispute settlement : the case of domestic investment statutes / Jarrod Hepburn.

Recent maritime disputes, environmental disasters, and piracy have raised the profile of the law of the sea. This Oxford Handbook brings together high-level analysis of all of its key aspects, examining the role of particular regions in the development of the law of the sea, management of the oceans' resources, and critical contemporary debates.