Interaction of Transnational Regulation and Norms of International Law in Ensuring the Regimes of Maritime Carriage of Goods

INTRODUCTION. This article explores the interaction between international legal regimes for maritime transport and the transnational regulation established by private operators. It demonstrates that the norms of international treaties form the foundational framework for order in the maritime transport market, while day-to-day commercial practice is governed by other normative blocks, predominantly transnational rules created by Western corporations, oſten operating in monopolistic or oligopolistic market structures. This is particularly evident in the spheres of chartering and insurance. Consequently, the global maritime transport market and its order are structured on at least two levels of governance: international legal regulation and transnational regulation. The "lower" level is more volatile and politicized; it can either reinforce the overall transport order or weaken, and even substantially disrupt, it. Political norms and national legislation also exert their own influence on order within the transport sector. MATERIALS AND METHODS . The study is built on a combination of formal-legal and systemic methods, which allow for the analysis of the norms of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and IMO instruments (SOLAS, MARPOL, the ISM Code, and the IMDG Code) not in isolation, but in their functional unity. Additionally, the comparative legal method was applied (to compare approaches to regulating chartering and insurance) along with the legal modeling method (for analyzing the formation of "mixed regimes" of transit). Special attention is given to the case-study method, which, using the examples of the Strait of Hormuz and anti-Russian sanctions, made it possible to identify the mechanisms of transformation of transnational regulation under the influence of political factors. RESEARCH RESULTS. Illustratively, the anti-Russian sanctions imposed by Western states and the conduct of corporations under their control in the sphere of maritime cargo transport demonstrate how transnational regulation, succumbing to political interests, loses its stabilizing function and itself becomes a source of risks. The result of this study is the identifi-cation of a specific nexus of legal uncertainty: concerning the transit passage through strategic straits, the framework provided by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Part III, Arts. 37–44) enters into a complex relationship with the non-participation of certain coastal states (using Iran as an example) and the ambiguity of customary norms. The case study of the Strait of Hormuz demonstrates that the priority given to national security logic and countermeasures can lead to the formation of a local "mixed regime" for transit, where international treaties, customary law, national regulations, and political decisions operate concurrently. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The current situation in the global maritime transport market leads to the conclusion that there is a need to strengthen inter-state regulation, including through the creation of regional normative complexes within non-Western associations (BRICS, EAEU) capable of competing with the dominant transnational corporations in regulating transport markets.