Camden Conference talk at Camden library: Who Governs the Oceans?

South China Sea tensions, the Strait of Hormuz, piracy, and the race to mine the deep seabed

Mon, 11/02/2026 - 9:43am

Event Date

Saturday, November 07, 2026 - 02:30 pm

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Ezgi Yildiz. (Photo courtesy Camden Conference)

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 only, Saturday, Nov. 7, at 2:30 p.m., in the library's Picker Room.

For most of history, the oceans were treated as a lawless frontier, according to a Camden Conference news release. 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.

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.

This program will be recorded and posted on the CPL YouTube channel and Camden Conference website.

Presenter 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. 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.

This free community event is hosted by the Camden Public Library in anticipation of the 40th Annual Camden Conference, Beyond the American Century: A New World Order?, February 19–21, 2027. The Conference will be held live at the Camden Opera House and livestreamed to the Strand Theatre in Rockland and Lunt Auditorium in Falmouth, and to homes and classrooms worldwide. For more information about the Camden Conference and upcoming events, visit www.camdenconference.org.