Law and Politics in Ocean Governance

The UN Fish Stocks Agreement was an effort to curb rising conflicts and unilateral actions regarding the rights and duties of States to exploit and manage straddling and highly migratory fish stocks. It broke new ground in international fisheries law in terms of incorporating new environmental principles, provisions on compliance and enforcement, and the duty of States to co-operate. This volume explores how these commitments are acted upon by States in a selection of regional fisheries management regimes, covering fisheries from the European Arctic to the western and central Pacific Ocean. The cases chosen reflect the heterogeneity of institutional arrangements that are established at the regional level to manage straddling and highly migratory fish stocks. The authors review three established regional fisheries management regimes and two regional agreements establishing such regimes, negotiated following the UN Fish Stocks Agreement.