The unfree sea: a legal geography of the dark fleet

Purpose This paper aims to explore the legal geography of the dark fleet, which is composed of thousands of ageing oil tankers that are used to engage in the illegal trade in sanctioned oil. In doing so, it wishes to understand how the dark fleet not only generates its own distinct spatial and legal effects upon the sea but also how these effects constantly interrupt the supposedly smooth architecture of the international law of the sea. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a critical legal geography approach, studying the spatiality and legality of the dark fleet by using the theoretical works of Hans Lindahl (2013) on strangeness, Michel Foucault (1984) on otherness and Kathryn Yusoff (2020) on inhumanity and “reading” them against the dark fleet through a critical discourse analysis of international law, maritime intelligence reports and news media. Findings The paper denotes three distinct spatio-legal “effects” that can be charted by studying the materiality of the dark fleet. These effects denote how the dark fleet widens and exploits existing gaps within international law through a network of corporate actors to hierarchise oil over human and animal life. Yet, in doing so, it also reveals the continuation of international law as a project that contains histories of colonial extractivism. Originality/value There has hardly been any academic research on the dark fleet, especially in the realm of law and geography. This paper will be of interest to scholars in both fields, as well as those that work in or study the maritime sector.