The Role of the Commons in Maritime and Outer Space

The central issue of the ‘commons’ is considered and how its characteristics manifested in the maritime and outer space contexts impact their governance in similar ways. Central are the issues of nation-states and property, the definition of boundaries, the indistinction of ownership and the consequential Tragedy of the Commons. The importance of privatisation, commercialisation and consequential exploitation of maritime and outer space is considered. This raises issues of extra-terrestrialism, the environment, aliens and colonialisation. The role of global institutions such as the UN is discussed as are those of major nation-states involved in the seas and outer space including the USA, Russia, the UK and a range of newly involved countries including India and China. The highly significant contribution of Ostrom to the consideration of governance and the commons is reviewed in the light of fishing, climate, clean air, satellite debris, warfare, disaster relief, mineral resource exploitation and over-population. Other issues related to the governance of the commons include jurisdiction, territory and enclosure and all of these placed in a polycentric context. Floating cities the World Lakes Concept, freedom of the seas, free-riding, adaptive governance, regime theory, framing and floating states also feature.