The international legal regime for fisheries management

American Journal of International Law, 1997

The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law, 2012

International fisheries governance contains no specific provisions detailing States' rights and obligations in respect of fisheries in maritime zones classified as falling under the sovereignty of coastal States, namely: internal waters, archipelagic waters and territorial seas. Using a case-study of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, this article demonstrates that there is still a gap in international fisheries governance relating to fisheries in 'waters under sovereignty' which requires remedying, and concludes by providing some possible management options to fill the gap.

Sustainability

As the starting point, this paper introduces the development of globalisation and the evolution of the international legal order and then discusses the interaction between the two. The article then explores the impact of the “concept” and “practice” of globalisation on the evolution of the international fisheries’ legal system by taking “sustainable development” and “international trade” as the probes to gain a practical understanding of the protection and conservation of high seas fisheries’ resources. The authors argued that the international law of the sea is an ever-renewing legal system, especially in the regulation of conserving and managing high seas fisheries resources, which has undergone tremendous and drastic changes in recent decades due to the development of global trade, the strengthening of environmental issues, and the flourishing of international organisations. Obviously, globalisation is an important and fundamental driving force behind it. The authors presented fi...

Global Environmental Politics, 2002

2017

International and domestic fishing have always been intimately connected. As a result, a given society's fishery law generally reflects international realities, including its relationship with international fishery laws. In the future, however, domestic fishery laws are likely to be affected and perhaps even change substantially, because some of the consequences of international fishery management oversights and impacts on domestic fishery management, although those impacts will vary from country to country. This paper examines the roles of international and domestic fishery management laws in addressing fishery conservation and management problems, including inadequate fisheries regulations, lack of implementation or enforcement, lack of transparency and traceability, failure to follow scientific advice, flag of convenience vessels, and too few no-go areas for fishing. The discussion begins with a closer examination of provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. From a legal perspective, however, the subject of fishery conservation and management is made more complex by the fact that the existing legal regimes under international agreements, and national legislations themselves vary considerably. As such, two issues regarding the role of international fishery law in domestic fishery management are likely to emerge as most critical: the extent to which international fishery law provides for flexibility in how domestic fishery law affect fishery conversation and management; and the extent to which domestic fishery law and management system both can adapt existing international legal regime to changing ecological realities and can increase the short-term and long-term resilience of the overall condition of the nation's fisheries.

Netherlands International Law Review, 1973

In 2 011, Colombian professor Antonio José Rengifo Lozano published the book International regime theory and the law of the sea: a study of fisheries on the high seas. This is an academic work that provides a large body of law and regulations on the subject, describing the birth of a new international regime that has been developing since the second half of the twentieth century, but is especially marked by the Straddling Fish Stocks Agreement of 1 995, more formally known as The Agreement for the Implementation of the Provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1 982 Relating to the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks. This regulation on straddling stocks and highly migratory fish stocks has set a number of guidelines for the new regime on the law of the sea due the complexity of regulating species in constant movement between the jurisdiction of coastal States and what can be considered the " high seas, " generally recognized as belonging to all humankind and subject to the long-standing principle of freedom of fishing. Through its description of the specific issue of straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish stocks, this work demonstrates that " state Antonio José Rengifo Lozano. (2 011). International regime theory and the law of the sea: a study of fisheries on the high seas.

The World's fisheries are in a desperate state, they have been utilised to a point where a majority of the fisheries resources are fully exploited. In addition to overfishing, the responsibility of the sad state of affairs of the world's High Seas' fish stocks can be put down to inefficient management. The high seas fisheries regime is dominated by two powerful, tried, tested and consented to norms: the principle of freedom of fishing on the high seas and the principle of exclusive flag state jurisdiction over flagged vessels on the high seas. These Grotius norms (unintentionally) obstruct effective and meaningful high seas fisheries management, and have enabled unscrupulous states and actors to take advantage of the lacunae created by the UNCLOS High Seas fisheries framework and engage in IUU fishing which has resulted in a tragedy of the high seas commons. Furthermore these norms have a 'hobbling' effect on RFMOS and coastal states alike, and leave them almost ...

Ecology Law Quarterly, 1989

Marine Policy, 1993

This paper is concerned with ocean fisheries management with particular emphasis on the application of economic theory to fisheries management practice. The paper begins by briefly discussing the common property nature of ocean fisheries and explains how the common property problem gives rise to the need for a specific management of fisheries. It goes on to examine various proposed methods of fisheries management arguing that only property-rights-based fisheries management systems, such as individual transferable quotas (IT&) or fisheries management based on the imposition of the appropriate tax on catch seem to be capable of delivering the full potential economic benefits of ocean fisheries. Finally, it reviews recent developments in the management of actual ocean fisheries with special reference to Australia, Iceland and New Zealand. The paper concludes that an economic rationalization of ocean fisheries is probably historically inevitable. Moreover, judging from historical trends in fisheries management, this rationalization will probably be accomplished by a property-rights-based management system such as the ITQ system.