This article addresses treaty-based regimes and the so-called Ocean Corporate Social Responsibility (ocsr) that are relevant to marine environmental protection and energy activities. In this context, special attention is paid to the interactions among the legal regimes in which the environmental and safety rules and standards are adopted and to the effects of the regulatory technique of “legislation by reference”. After examining the relevant obligations of States within the framework of the un Convention on the Law of the Sea and the International Maritime Organization, the authors analyse ocsr, especially its preventive, damage mitigation and compensatory functions and its potential synergies with the treaty-based regimes.