Traditional marine governance can create inferior results. Management decisions customarily reflect fluctuating political priorities and formidable special-interest influence. Governments face distrust and conflicts of interest. Industries face fluctuating or confusing rules. Communities feel disenfranchised to affect change. The marine environment exhibits the impacts. While perceived harm to diverse values and priorities, disputed facts and legal questions create conflict, informed and empowered public engagement prepares governments to forge socially legitimate and environmentally acceptable decisions. Integrity, transparency and inclusiveness matter. This article examines positive contributions engaged communities can make to marine governance and relates it to social license. Social license suffers critique as vague and manufactured. Here its traditional understanding as extra-legal approval that communities give to resource choices is broadened to include a legally sanctioned power to deliberate—social license to engage. The starting hypothesis rests in the legal tradition designating oceans as public assets for which governments hold fiduciary duties of sustainable management benefiting current and future generations. The public trust doctrine houses this legal custom. A procedural due process right for engaged communities should stem from this public-asset classification and afford marine stakeholders standing to ensure management policy accords with doctrinal principles. The (free), prior, informed consent participation standard provides best practice for engaged decision-making. Building on theories from law, social, and political science, we suggest robust public deliberation provides marine use actors methods to earn and sustain their social license to operate, while governmental legitimacy is bolstered by assuring public engagement opportunities are available and protected with outcomes utilized.

中文翻译：

---

作为通往海洋可持续发展之路的社会许可的新范式

传统的海洋治理可能会产生较差的结果。管理决策通常反映波动的政治优先事项和强大的特殊利益影响。政府面临不信任和利益冲突。行业面临着波动或混乱的规则。社区感到被剥夺了影响变革的权利。海洋环境表现出影响。虽然认为对不同价值观和优先事项造成损害，但有争议的事实和法律问题会造成冲突，知情和授权的公众参与使政府做好准备，制定社会合法和环境可接受的决策。完整性、透明度和包容性很重要。本文研究了参与社区可以对海洋治理做出的积极贡献，并将其与社会许可联系起来。社会许可受到批评，因为它是模糊的和制造的。在这里，它作为社区对资源选择的法外批准的传统理解扩大到包括法律认可的深思熟虑的权力——参与的社会许可。最初的假设基于将海洋指定为公共资产的法律传统，政府对其负有可持续管理的信托责任，造福今世后代。公共信托原则包含这种法律习惯。参与社区的程序性正当程序权应源于这种公共资产分类，并为海洋利益相关者提供地位，以确保管理政策符合学说原则。（自由）、事先、知情同意参与标准为参与决策提供了最佳实践。以法律、社会和政治科学的理论为基础，