This unit integrates the natural and social sciences to place contemporary maritime issues into a broader context. Its objective is to provide a comprehensive, multidisciplinary introduction to the management of uses of the international marine environment. It includes a series of lectures on oceanography, marine biology, chemistry and international law as enabling instruction for the more complex lectures to follow. International Marine Management incorporates distinct yet interconnected themes: commercial resource exploitation (living and non-living); tourism, recreation and other non-extractive commercial uses of the oceans; shipping; piracy and other important security matters; conservation of the environment; and emerging techniques and findings in marine scientific research. The oceans are steeped in lore and tradition, and much of this is now codified into international law. In addition, oceans are complex, diverse and interdependent environments and understanding the dynamics from a scientific perspective (in basic terms) is critical. The overarching approach of the unit is to explore our stewardship of the world’s oceans as global commons and therefore through the rule of international rather than domestic law. The differences between the two legal regimes will be explained in an introduction to international law lecture. Completing the unit will equip students from a wide variety of academic disciplines with the ability to view the world’s oceans from a more holistic perspective. Your new knowledge will assist you to understand the scientific basis for international policy decisions and legal approaches, or help you to refine the structure of your own marine scientific research so that it may have greater utility in policy and law formulation.