Rosemary Rayfuse

The Challenge of Food Security

‘This is a timely book which addresses one of the greatest challenges for international regulation: food security. The book is a comprehensive treatment of various aspects of food security from its origins to the relationship between food security and other values, the role that commodity trading plays in exacerbating food insecurity, the importance of adequate food governance, together with specific food security problems like fish, water and genetic resources. The editors should be congratulated on a stimulating collection of essays that brings together a diverse range of scholars and which sheds real light on the complex dimensions of the food security debate.’

Securing a Sustainable Future for the Oceans Beyond National Jurisdiction: The Legal Basis for an Integrated Cross-Sectoral Regime for High Seas Governance for the 21st Century

The legal regime for the high seas is fragmented both sectorally and geographically and is incomplete. Governance, regulatory, substantive and implementational gaps in the legal framework serve to limit the effectiveness of the high seas regime in securing a sustainable future for the conservation and use of the high seas environment and its resources. A global approach to further developing the high seas regime based on the concept of international public trusteeship for the oceans beyond national jurisdiction could foster environmentally responsible use of the high seas and its resources and ensure the application of modern conservation principles and management tools to human activities on the high seas. In view of escalating threats to the oceans from existing and emerging uses and from the impacts of climate change, transformation to a legal regime better suited to integrated, cross-sectoral management and preservation of vital ocean ecosystem services and resilience may no longer be a luxury, but rather a necessity.

Ocean Fertilisation and Climate Change: The Need to Regulate Emerging High Seas Uses

Geo-engineering and environmental modification techniques are increasingly being proposed as climate change mitigation strategies. Ocean fertilisation has been promoted as a simple solution to the problem of increasing atmospheric CO2 levels. However, neither its environmental safety nor its efficacy has been adequately assessed. This article examines the legality of ocean fertilisation under the law of the sea and concludes that it is subject to regulation under the London Convention and London Protocol as its potential for harm is contrary to the aims of these agreements. Hence, the sale of carbon offsets to fund ocean fertilisation activities should be prohibited unless and until an adequate risk assessment based on independent peer-reviewed science has established that the benefits outweigh the potential for harm, and appropriate regulation is in place to ensure that real, measurable, long-term CO2 sequestration can be independently verified. The initial uncertainties surrounding the appropriate regulatory regime for ocean fertilisation highlight the need for a comprehensive global regime for the prior assessment and on-going monitoring of existing, new and emerging high seas activities and uses to ensure they do not have adverse impacts on marine biodiversity and the marine environment in areas beyond national jurisdiction.

Enforcement of High Seas Fisheries Agreements: Observation and Inspection under the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources

Reliance on exclusive flag state jurisdiction has proved ineffective in enforcing high seas fisheries agreements. The 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement provides for other methods of enforcement to be developed with regional fisheries organisations and arrangements to enhance and supplement flag state enforcement. One particular method referred to is that of boarding and inspection. Prior to 1995 the Convention on Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources was one of the few agreements providing for establishment of a boarding and inspection scheme. This article examines the development and implementation of the CCAMLR system. It critically appraises the system and provides suggestions for improvement. In doing so, the article attempts to demonstrate the precedential value of the CCAMLR experience to programmes established or under consideration by other high seas fisheries organisations and arrangements

To Our Children's Children's Children: From Promoting to Achieving Compliance in High Seas Fisheries

Regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs) have adopted a range of measures aimed at promoting compliance with the conservation and management measures they adopt and at deterring IUU fishing. However, enforcement of those measures continues to be problematic. This article reviews current compliance and enforcement measures, and discusses their shortcomings. It then examines the legal basis for the adoption by RFMOs of an expanded range of measures aimed at strengthening their enforcement capability and provides practical suggestions as to the possible content of those new measures. Particular attention is paid to the modus operandi of international co-operation and the emerging practice of non-flag state enforcement.

Countermeasures and High Seas Fisheries Enforcement

Despite adoption by Regional Fisheries Organisations of numerous measures aimed at deterring, preventing and eliminating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, IUU fishing by vessels flagged in both member and non-member states continues. None of the reciprocal boarding and inspection schemes adopted by RFOs provides for a positive right of arrest, detention or prosecution by a non-flag state in the event the flag states fails or refuses to take such action itself. The law of countermeasures may, however, provide legal justification for at-sea measures including boarding, inspection and possibly arrest and prosecution by members of RFOs against non-flag vessels of both member and non-member states. Although by nature an exceptional remedy, where the criteria discussed in this article are fulfilled, countermeasures in the form of at-sea enforcement may be an effective, and legal, tool in the fight against IUU fishing.

Precaution and the Protection of Marine Biodiversity in Areas beyond National Jurisdiction

AbstractAs a post-LOSC legal development, the precautionary principle is nowhere enunciated in the Law of the Sea Convention. Nevertheless, in the thirty years since the LOSC’s adoption, the significance of the precautionary principle for marine environmental protection in general and marine resource conservation in particular has been recognised. The language of precaution, the precautionary principle and the precautionary approach have entered the lexicon of the law of the sea, permeating the international community’s efforts to manage and conserve marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. The challenge remains, however, of crafting and implementing management and governance regimes capable of achieving the objectives of precautionary management and turning the rhetoric of precaution into a reality.

Canada and Regional Fisheries Organizations: Implementing the UN Fish Stocks Agreement

Canada is a strong supporter of the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement. Whether Canadas support is matched by its actions in strengthening regional fisheries organizations and arrangements dealing with straddling and highly migratory fish stocks is thus worthy of investigation. This contribution examines Canadian activities within regional fisheries organizations with particular reference to implementation of the precautionary and ecosystem approaches and the issue of enforcement of conservation and management measures. Although Canadian actions appear generally to be furthering implementation of the Agreement, comprehensive integration of words and deeds remains to be achieved.

Regulating Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean: Much Ado About Nothing?

In July 2015 the five Arctic Ocean coastal states adopted the Oslo Declaration Concerning the Prevention of Unregulated High Seas Fishing in the Central Arctic Ocean in which they voluntarily agreed to refrain from commercial fishing in the Central Arctic Ocean unless and until appropriate science based management measures are in place. Like the Ilulissat Declaration before it, the Oslo Declaration was both hailed as a major achievement and criticised as an act of Arctic exceptionalism. This chapter interrogates the claim of Arctic exceptionalism and demonstrates that the Oslo Declaration, by itself, constrains neither the rights and interests of the Arctic Ocean coastal states nor the rights and interests of the rest of the international community. Of greater import will be the outcome of the subsequent ‘Broader Process’ negotiations the Declaration has spawned involving non-Arctic Ocean states. Given the uncertainties and extremely limited scientific knowledge regarding existing and potential Central Arctic Ocean fisheries resources, particularly when combined with the current lack of activity in the area, these negotiations provide a valuable opportunity to implement a truly precautionary approach to their future conservation and management based on sound science and modern international fisheries management principles and practices.

Climate change and the law of the sea

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