The roles of ocean law in the science-policy ballet on protection of the marine environment

Science-based and/or evidence-based policymaking is an ubiquitous and noncontroversial idea. In the context of the protection and preservation of the marine environment, it means that policy decisions must be based on sound science. What is less clear is what science is, and what areas of knowledge are included (e.g., natural or social sciences or both?). This paper builds on the concept of knowledge coproduction (from all relevant areas of knowledge) to examine the functions of the ocean legal regime in relation to scientific information and its integration in the areas of knowledge needed in policymaking for the protection of the marine environment. Of the four main functions of the ocean legal regime (the hammer, the sword, the shield, and the mould), it proposes the mould as the least used and the most promising function at the interface of science and policy.