The Capacity Development Imperative: Elisabeth Mann Borgese’s Legacy

Elisabeth Mann Borgese often proposed that the development of a new international framework for the law of the sea offered a laboratory for humanity within which to develop new approaches to its relationship with nature, and with itself. This proposition was firmly rooted in the conviction that we should be courageous enough to step away from our traditional land-based approaches, and leave behind some of our old ways, which have often caused conflict and inequalities, all at the expense of humanity and nature. The infectious beauty and humbleness of Mann Borgese’s positive intellect was clear to those who worked with her, or even casually conversed with her. However, she was sometimes taken very literally by her contemporaries, and her propositions provided some with the excuse to stay on land and encourage the dismissal of her vision as nothing more than naivety, or perhaps even geopolitical manipulations of the times. Unfortunately, the importance and timing of Elisabeth’s underlying ideas evaded them, as they could not see beyond the shores of their intellect. But Elisabeth was not a pessimist, nor was she easily intimidated by complexity. Quite to the contrary, such situations brought out the best in her, as well as those she so selflessly shared her life with. Armed with conviction, humble persistence, and fundamentally human propositions, she continued to explain. Many of her ideas were eventually understood in the context of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, some even serving as elements of the nucleus of what has become the ‘constitution for the ocean’: the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (unclos). But Mann Borgese understood that this magnificent development could only be the beginning; hence she continued her mission within the law of the sea and the sustainable development intergovernmental processes. The convergence