Camden Conference Community Event: ‘Who Governs the Oceans? The Law of the Sea in a Shifting World Order’ with Ezgi Yildiz
Saturday, November 7 @ 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm
The Camden Public Library, as a part of the Camden Conference Community Events Series, welcomes Ezgi Yildiz for a presentation that traces how the modern law of the sea took shape, what it has achieved, and why it now faces growing strain. This event will take place in person on Saturday, November 7, at 2:30 PM in the Picker Room.
Who Governs the Oceans? The Law of the Sea in a Shifting World Order
For most of history, the oceans were treated as a lawless frontier. Over the last century that changed. A series of treaties, culminating in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, produced one of the most ambitious experiments in global cooperation ever attempted: shared rules for navigation, fishing, resource extraction, and the peaceful settlement of disputes across the entire planet. The United States helped design this order yet never formally joined it. This is a paradox that captures both the reach and the limits of American leadership.
This talk traces how the modern law of the sea took shape, what it has achieved, and why it now faces growing strain. That strain is in the headlines, from contested waters in the South China Sea and the Strait of Hormuz, to piracy off the Somali coast, to the emerging race for deep-seabed mining. The talk introduces each of these flashpoints and considers what it will take to keep the oceans peaceful, prosperous, and healthy in the decades to come.
Ezgi Yildiz is an Assistant Professor of Government at Bowdoin College and a Research Associate at the Global Governance Center of the Geneva Graduate Institute in Switzerland. She received her Ph.D. in International Relations and International Law from the Geneva Graduate Institute in Geneva, Switzerland. Before joining Bowdoin, she held research and faculty positions at Harvard University, Boston University, and California State University, Long Beach.
She is the author of three books. Between Forbearance and Audacity: The European Court of Human Rights and the Norm against Torture (Cambridge University Press, 2024) won the Best Book Award from the American Political Science Association’s Human Rights Section and the International Studies Association’s International Law Section, and received an Honorable Mention for the Chadwick F. Alger Award from the International Studies Association’s International Organization Section. She is also co-editor, with Nico Krisch, of The Many Paths of Change in International Law (Oxford University Press, 2023), and co-author, with Krisch and Pedro Martínez Esponda, of Change in International Law: Paths, Processes, Power (Oxford University Press, 2026).
This event is presented in anticipation of the 40th Annual Camden Conference, Beyond the American Century: A New World Order? taking place live from the Camden Opera House from February 19 – 21, 2027.