Implementing and Enforcing European Fisheries Law

Within the European Union, overfishing, overcapacity and non-compliance with the system of catch quotas are threatening the very existence of some fisheries resources. In dealing with these problems, the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) has developed into one of the most regulated areas of the European Union. Yet, in order to provide for the necessary implementation and enforcement frameworks, the European Union strongly relies on the Member States: a reliance on fifteen different legal systems with different regulatory capacities, different legal traditions and different enforcement systems of criminal law, administrative law, private law or disciplinary law. Implementing and Enforcing European Fisheries Laws focuses on the legal and practical problems of the implementation and enforcement of the EU's catch quotas in a shared legal order. It examines in detail how effective enforcement can be achieved in a process of European integration. A distinctive feature of this book is the attention given to the trend towards sectoralization whereby management and enforcement responsibilities are shared between the central government and organisations representing fishermen. To what extent does sectoralization affect traditional systems of public law enforcement? What does resort to the fishing sector itself mean for the degree of legal control Member States exercise over these systems? The book is divided into three sections: Part One examines the Community law context; Part Two investigates implementation and enforcement in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom and analyzes the effectiveness of the existing regulatory frameworks and the systems of criminal, administrative and disciplinary law used to enforce the fisheries laws and regulations. Part Three compares the national systems in the light of European law requirements and the protection of individual rights. The book concludes with the future of fisheries enforcement and considers the potential changes in enforcement. The study is of importance for the future role of the CFP and its possible effects on national implementation and enforcement. More generally, the book reveals the shifting distribution of responsibilities between the Community and the national institutions and actors involved and shows many of the possibilities for and the limits of regulatory enforcement in a setting of European integration.