Editorial note

Abstract

This issue of Policy Quarterly explores the governance of the least governed reaches of our planet, the open ocean. Our oceans are notoriously difficult to govern and even harder to manage for several reasons. First is their sheer scale – they cover more than two-thirds of the planet. Second is ownership – they are both everyone’s and no one’s. Social science scholarship has many bright ideas about governing common pool resources. But when the grandmother of this research, Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom, visited New Zealand in 2011, she said straight out that her models do not work in rivers or oceans. When formal governance structures fail to fill the cracks, informal ‘soft law’ can step into the breach. This is where the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) fits in. IUCN has little formal power over the oceans, but great moral influence over the nations that govern the ships traversing and extracting from those oceans. Improving the governance of the ungovernable treasures that belong to everyone and no one at once is IUCN’s raison d’etre. New Zealand is one of 83 State members of the IUCN. The New Zealand Committee of IUCN consists of New Zealand members and representatives on expert commissions. The guest editors of this issue serve on the executive board of the IUCN national committee.