Ocean Yearbook

Ocean Yearbook

The International Ocean Institute's major publication is the Ocean Yearbook, published by Brill Nijhoff Publishers in cooperation with the Marine & Environmental Law Institute at the Schulich School of Law.

Ocean Yearbook was founded by the late Elisabeth Mann Borgese and is currently edited by Scott Coffen-Smout, Patrícia Galvão Ferreira, Moira L McConnell and Sara L Seck. The editorial offices of Ocean Yearbook are in the Marine & Environmental Law Institute. Thirty-eight volumes have been published, with the University of Chicago Press publishing volumes 1-19. 

The objectives of the Ocean Yearbook include encouraging emerging young scholars and fostering contributions from developing countries.

Current Issue: Ocean Yearbook 38 (2024)

Call for papers

Articles on issues and prospects, ocean governance, living resources of the ocean, non-living ocean resources, transportation and communications, environment and coastal management, maritime security, military activities, regional developments, training and education and ocean polar issues will be considered.

Ocean Yearbook Limited Open Access


We are pleased to announce that the Ocean Yearbook is part of a new Research4Life program launched in March 2018, providing online access to academic legal content in developing economy countries. Researchers, librarians, policy-makers, judges and legal experts from more than 115 low- and middle-income countries will receive free or low-cost online access to law and law-related academic and professional peer-reviewed content through their institutions.  Access is provided by a new program, Global Online Access to Legal Information (GOALI), a multi-stakeholder initiative of the Research4Life partnership.  

Additional details are available online: http://www.research4life.org   
Eligibility access to Research4Life: https://www.research4life.org/access/eligibility/ 
How to Register: https://www.research4life.org/access/how-to-register/

Ocean Yearbook Student Prize
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The Ocean Yearbook Student Prize is an annual competition open to students writing research papers on marine affairs subjects at any university or other tertiary education institution.

The winning paper in the 2024 Ocean Yearbook Student Paper Competition is by Asia Murphy, "To Freeze or Not to Freeze: An Analysis of the Approaches to Maritime Boundaries Amidst Global Sea Level Rise."  The runner-up entries are by Lucas Barsi, "Mare Liberum to Mare Curare: The IMO’s Prospective Role in Implementing Area-based Management Tools for the BBNJ Agreement" and Yannick Suazo, "Should Canada Allow Autonomous Ships in its Coastal Waters? – International Context and Legal Implications."

All three papers will be published in Volume 39 in 2025.