Why UNCLOS faces an enforcement problem

Does the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea face a rocky future?

The panel describes an existing enforcement problem, with inconsistent compliance and dispersed power complicating the convention's application.

The discussion dates UNCLOS to 1982 and its entry into force to 1994, and describes enforcement problems throughout its history. It contrasts the United States, which has not ratified the convention while seeking to uphold its rules, with states that ratified it yet disregard provisions they accepted. The panel connects maritime law to precedents once enforced by dominant navies, especially the Royal Navy. Its argument is that institutions shaped by Cold War power arrangements need wider participation and agreement to work consistently in a multipolar system. Formal acceptance of a treaty therefore does not by itself establish whether governments will follow or enforce it.