‘Over the Edge’: The Ocean as Commons and Usufruct
New Formations - Print ISSN 0950-2378 - Online ISSN 1741-0789
Volume 2025 Number 115
‘Over the Edge’: The Ocean as Commons and Usufruct
Anupama Mohan pages 50‑75
DOI: 10.3898/NEWF:115.03.2025
Abstract
In this article, I examine the historical concept of the commons, seeking to see its value in the twenty-first century as an analytical category for understanding the ocean. The discourse surrounding the commons has generated many semantic and conceptual paradoxes leading to the need for new terms and new scales that are better suited to also addressing the ecological crisis of the oceans. The essay examines two crucial world agreements, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS, 1982) and the High Seas Treaty (2023), to understand what global cooperation at the highest levels entails and ramifies, especially for communities in the Global South. Finally, the essay explores how useful the commons is as an idea for oceanic cultures and examines the Marxian concept of the usufruct as providing the foundation for a transformed approach to the high and deep seas today.
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To cite this article
Anupama Mohan (2025) ‘Over the Edge’: The Ocean as Commons and Usufruct, New Formations, 2025(115), 50-75 . https://doi.org/10.3898/NEWF:115.03.2025