Description

This seminar will discuss elements of a research project that explores the evolution of the law of the sea over the course of the 20th century. It will focus on the emergence of the seabed as an area of distinct political, economic and technological interest, and trace its subjection to national and international regimes. Calling attention to the legally constructed imaginary of the seabed, the talk will re-examine views of both the ocean and the law, which are commonly held, and presented as natural and therefore necessary. Suggesting instead a greater focus on the contingencies and false contingencies informing the development of the law, the talk will join a small but growing literature on the unnatural history of the sea.

About The Speaker

Dr. Surabhi Ranganathan is a University Lecturer in International Law, and a Fellow of King’s College, the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law and the Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance, at the University of Cambridge. Her research interests include the oceans, global commons, natural resources, treaties and the history and politics of international law. She is the author of Strategically Created Treaty Conflicts and the Politics of International Law (Cambridge University Press 2014), and Assistant Editor of The Cambridge Companion to International Law (2012). Her writing has appeared in the British Yearbook of International Law, American Journal of International Law, and European Journal of International Law, among others. She edits the International Legal Theory Section of the Leiden Journal of International Law.