The paper presented below is intended to reveal the institutional and substantive inconsistencies within the international legal system instituted for the governance of the oceans –UNCLOS-, from a literature review of various theoretical approaches related to fragmentation of international law. So, what is contained in the document it was initially oriented to the context of the reader by presenting the theoretical guidelines necessary for the understanding of the legal system in question, and then directed towards the realization of a critical analysis of the operation of such a legal system.