Corto Maltese and the Myriad Narratives of a More-than-Human Ocean: Revisiting Some of UNCLOS’ Ontological Assumptions

Abstract

Graphic novels have been previously recognized by scholarly research as a valuable conceptual lens for thinking critically about law. Asserting the need for a deeper engagement with the material foundations, ontological beliefs and epistemological grids that lie under the development of international law of the sea, this article delves into the imaginary oceanic universe of Hugo Pratt’s classic graphic novel series, Corto Maltese. In conjunction with the comic series, “law and comics” literature, Indigenous studies, and new materialism thinking, the article examines different ontological values related to the material oceanic universe that are incorporated in the graphic narrative, juxtaposing them with beliefs embedded in the Western legal understanding of the ocean systems. Using the graphic novel series as a methodological device, the article thus seeks to revisit some of the law of the sea’s fundamental assumptions and ground future discussions towards a material turn of international law of the sea, and not least Western philosophy as a whole.