AUTHOR=Liu Zhao 

TITLE=A maritime community with a shared future: bridging fragmented legal regulations for marine plastic pollution

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Marine Science

VOLUME=Volume 12 - 2025

YEAR=2025

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2025.1680110

DOI=10.3389/fmars.2025.1680110

ISSN=2296-7745

ABSTRACT=Marine plastic pollution highlights the limitations of fragmented governance regimes. This study proposes the Maritime Community with a Shared Future (MCSF) as a framework to address this challenge. Through comparative legal analysis of treaty conflicts and case studies of the INC process, we demonstrate that the MCSF and the proposed global plastics treaty are designed to have a symbiotic relationship, rather than a competitive one. This research provides a negotiation pathway for the global plastics treaty.