The explosive growth of economies like Hong Kong and Singapore has shown that people and capital are attracted to societies with good legal environments.
Therefore, the goals of our law and politics research program are to define what makes for a good legal regime, and identify the obstacles to creating the kind of regime that will allow seasteads to thrive.
The Important Questions
- Under what conditions will countries interfere with a seastead’s internal affairs?
- What legal considerations give rise to unique business opportunities?
- What laws and taxes apply to seastead residents?
The national and international laws that affect seasteads can be complex. Which laws apply depends on the citizenship of the seastead residents, the location of the seastead, the country under which the seastead is “flagged,” and the interpretation of international maritime treaties, to name a few of the complicating factors.
This complexity introduces a great deal of uncertainty into any attempt to seastead. Investors and entrepreneurs will want to know what conditions might lead existing governments to interfere with a seastead’s internal affairs. What legal considerations give rise to unique business opportunities? What laws and taxes apply to seastead residents?
To answer these questions, our law and politics research program investigates existing laws as they might apply to seasteads, internal governance strategies for seasteads themselves (constitutions, courts and police forces), and the legal opportunities and risks involved in operating a seastead.
Our current focus is on the resolving issues that are critical to the success of early seasteads, though we also address some longer term legal issues, such as how seasteads can achieve sovereignty.
Key Research
Flagging Options for Seasteading Projects
(Sean Hickman) – International and maritime law requires all ships to fly the flag of an existing nation. Most countries place strict regulations on individuals or companies that wish to fly their flag, but there are a number of countries that operate so-called open registries, offering ship owners from around the world the option to register their vessels under what are known as “flags of convenience” (FOCs). Flying the flag of an open registry country seems to be the best option for early seasteading ventures, because it offers the highest possible degree of autonomy and independence without placing seasteads outside of the law. This paper considers the merits of various open registry countries in terms of reputation, regulations, costs and requirements with the purposes of early seasteading ventures in mind, and offers case studies of the costs and benefits of six promising open registry countries.
Seasteading Location Study: Ship-Based and Large-Scale City Scenarios
(Shanee Stopnitzky, James Hogan, George Petrie, Elie Amar, Dario Mutabdzija, Max Marty and Rafa Gutierrez) – To determine the most promising locations for seastead communities, The Seasteading Institute has evaluated the entire ocean, based on a comprehensive set of criteria related to environmental, economic, legal and political considerations. Data sets for each criterion are presented in the form of color-coded heat maps depicting the desirability of possible locations for two different seastead scenarios: a small, ship-based seastead, and a large “Metropolistead,” or full-fledged city on the ocean. High resolution maps of the individual criteria, as well as aggregated maps, can be viewed here.
Charting the Course: Toward a Seasteading Legal Strategy
(Dario Mutabdzija and Max Borders) – The primary objective of this paper is to assist with the formation of a legal strategy that will be useful to seasteaders around the world.
Part 1 of 2 paper series, July 2011
Seasteading: Competitive Governments on the Ocean [PDF]
Barriers to Entry and Institutional Evolution [PDF]
(Patri Friedman and Brad Taylor) – These economics working papers explain why seasteading is a powerful lever to improve government and thus make the world a better place. They introduce our dynamic theory of the industrial organization of government which combines the insights of public choice theory and a dynamic understanding of competition to explain how seasteading will lead to better governments by enabling experimentation and thus innovation. In addition to containing original ideas, these papers contain comprehensive reviews of previous related works. The Barriers to Entry paper contains a review of how the right to vote in the United States mainly expanded through the creation of new states, rather than through changes within existing states, demonstrating how new polities can bring greater equality.
Governing Seasteads: An Outline of the Options
(Brad Taylor) – This paper lays out criteria for good governance, and examines historical forms of governance in light of those criteria. It also examines customary law, common interest developments, entrepreneurial communities and corporate governance, and applies the lessons learned to governance at sea.
Building the Platform: Challenges, Solutions and Decisions in Seasteading Law
(Dario Mutabdzija and Max Borders) – The primary objective of this paper is to discuss particular legal impediments to seasteading, ways to overcome those impediments and specific strategies for getting started on the sea.
Part 2 of 2 paper series, August 2011
2012 Projects
Our previous research efforts focused on identifying key challenges. In 2011, we will be focusing on coming up
with designs and locations that best meet our criteria. These include:
Seastead Engineering Report: Designs – The “Seastead Engineering Report: Criteria” answered the question: what
makes a good seastead design? “Seastead Engineering Report: Designs” will review in depth all of the different
design approaches and evaluate them according to the criteria established in Seastead Engineering Report:
Designs
Seastead Location Study: Assessment – “Seastead Location Study: Criteria” answered the question: what makes a
good location for a seastead? This paper will examine locations all around the globe and assess them for their
seasteading potential, based on their oceanographic, economic, and geopolitical conditions.
Research Library
The following research reports document some of the current law likely to govern seasteads:
- - Proposed Inhabited Artificial Islands in International Waters: International Law Analysis in Regards to Resource Use, Law of the Sea and Norms of Self-Determination and State Recognition (Rene Kardol) – A great legal survey of the possibilities for artificial ocean structures to gain autonomy and recognition.
- - The Legal Regime of Islands in the South China Sea [PDF] (Marius Gjetnes) – A thorough discussion of international maritime law as it relates to islands, including some discussion of stilt villages and artificial islands.
- - Collection of documents [ZIP] containing copies of legislation related to artificial islands, oil platforms, military platforms, and seasteading related international law.
©2012 The Seasteading Institute