National Interests of the Russian Federation in the World Ocean: Legal Characteristics

Abstract

In the paper, the author endeavours to form a comprehensive legal characterization of the national interests of the Russian Federation in the World Ocean consolidated in the new Maritime Doctrine approved by the Decree of the President of Russia dated 31 July 2022. The paper highlights a vital nature of the needs of the State and society that represent conceptual basis for the establishment and implementation of Russian national interests in the World Ocean. The author argues that national maritime interests should be understood as a complex and integral political and legal category of a dual nature, covering both interests in the peaceful use of living and non-living resources of the World Ocean, including commercial navigation and naval activities aimed, inter alia, at ensuring the economic and social interests of the state and society in the maritime sphere. The author highlights the importance of identifying vital, important and other areas (zones) for implementation of national interests. Also, attention is focused on the need for doctrinal development and improvement of a set of legal norms regarding maritime activities in the Azov-Black Sea basin. The paper substantiates a positive role and current activity of the representatives of the Sevastopol scientific School of Maritime Law in the formation and development of systemic legal regulation of the legal status and features of the use of the sea spaces of the Azov-Black Sea basin. In addition, the author analyzes the prospects for strengthening and promoting the national interests of the Russian Federation and qualifies a spatial sphere of their implementation that covers the entire World Ocean and the Caspian Sea. The paper proposes a systematic approach to implementation of national interests in the World Ocean based on an interconnected set of various legal characteristics including teleological; institutional; functional; formal-legal; vital; international law characteristics.