The Associazione di Consulenza in Diritto del Mare (ASCOMARE) is pleased to present the fourth volume of its Yearbook series on the Law of the Sea, which brings together contributions from distinguished international academics and practitioners. The volume explores the extent to which the law of the sea contributes, constructively or otherwise, to the development, application, and potential reconfiguration of collective frameworks for the protection of fundamental rights, including in areas not traditionally associated with the maritime domain. It is now well established that human rights apply at sea as they do on land. Yet the converse is equally true, and arguably more complex: numerous rights exercised on land, whether civil, political, social, or economic, are directly or indirectly shaped by the ways in which maritime spaces are governed and marine resources managed. This volume seeks to move beyond disciplinary compartmentalisation and jurisdictional blind spots. It proposes instead a sharper lens through which to conceptualise the law of the sea not merely as a functional regime of navigation, fisheries, and boundary delimitation, but as a powerful vector that shapes, enables, and at times constrains the exercise of human rights within an increasingly interconnected legal order.

[TABLE OF CONTENTS]
1. Mekhala Dave: Ocean space: Timeless relations.
2. Pierandrea Leucci: Introductory remarks.
3. Konrad Jan Marciniak: High tide for human rights: Some reflections from the perspective of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
4. Liesbeth Lijnzaad: Considerations of humanity and human rights at sea.
5. Irini Papanicolopulu: Human rights and the law of the sea: From concept to action.
6. Matteo Bedendi: Human rights in a shifting maritime landscape. 
7. Mutaz M. Qafisheh and Anisha Patel: The nexus between the law of the sea and human rights law in the context of maritime occupation: The case of Palestine.
8. Eric Loefflad and Vicky Kapogianni: China’s maritime militias, human rights, and the law of the sea: Contested norms in a shifting international legal order.
9. Cristina Canella: Claiming Indigenous rights: The unacknowledged amicus curiae submission by the Chagossian Committee (Seychelles).
10. Filippo Cerboni: Artificial intelligence and human rights at sea: Legal challenges and opportunities in maritime governance.

11. Marilù Porchia: The Italian Civil Aviation Authority’s ban on human rights monitoring over the Mediterranean and Law Decree 145/2024: State interference in private rescue operations.

12. Aphrodite Papachristodoulou: Out of sight, out of mind? Migrant deaths and disappearances at sea and the interplay of the law of the sea and human rights law obligations.
13. Pierandrea Leucci: The limits of certification mechanisms and the role of flag States in the maritime trade of coltan from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
14. Tullio Scovazzi: The marine manifestations of intangible cultural heritage.
15. Kiara Neri and Pascale Ricard: Tides of change: Climate impacts, human rights, and maritime legal frameworks.
16. Nouwagnon Olivier Afogo: The justiciability of the ‘right to consume seafood’ in the context of climate change.
17. Elena Ardito: Sinking States’ open questions: Continuity of statehood and human rights protection of forcibly displaced people. The case of Tuvalu in the light of the Falepili Union Treaty.
18. Victoria Chiu: La justice climatique et les peuples autochtones côtiers en Amérique du Sud.
19. Anna Pedrajas: Le droit international au secours du patrimoine culturel marin et côtier face aux changements climatiques.
20. Kiara Neri: The first climate cases of the European Courts: What implications for the sea? 
21. Pierandrea Leucci, Chiara Pavesi, and Pierre Clément Mingozzi: Concluding remarks.
22. Ademuni Odeke, Andrea Caligiuri, Daud Hassan, Pierandrea Leucci, Alice Ollino, Irini Papanicolopulu, Andrea Pappalardo, and Tullio Scovazzi: Request for a legal opinion by the BDS National Committee on the regime of innocent passage and the due diligence obligations of flag States under the international law of the sea.