2020 Sammler. “Kauri and the whale: Oceanic matter and meaning in New Zealand” pp. 63-84, in I. Braverman and E. Johnson (eds.), Blue legalities: The law and life of the sea, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Geopolitically, demarcating the borders of ocean jurisdictions granted under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) has stabilized many international disputes over ocean resources and boundaries. Yet, Aotearoa, New Zealand, has struggled with translating and implementing UNCLOS, as many in the country question the very division of territory and property along a land/sea binary. New Zealand legislation written to determine rights and responsibilities offshore has sparked fierce debates and protests, demonstrating not only the ambiguity within the multiple understandings of ocean space written into UNCLOS, but also that this treaty is categorically incompatible with other ways of knowing and practicing ocean spaces.
Chapter preprint open access: https://saltygeographies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/sammler_kauriwhale_proof.pdf
Find full book for purchase here: https://www.dukeupress.edu/blue-legalities.
Marine Political Ecology Collective 