Ted L. McDorman

The Role of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf: A Technical Body in a Political World

The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf is a body created by the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention. The Commission was established as part of the careful compromises respecting Article 76 and the formula therein for the determination of the outer limits of the continental shelf. The purpose of this contribution is to explore what role the Law of the Sea Convention provides to the Commission when a coastal state seeks to establish the outer limit of the continental shelf under the Convention. The argument of this contribution is that the principal role of the Commission is as a legitimator of the claims of a coastal state and that this is a relatively modest role in what is essentially a boundary-making process that is political.

Implementing Existing Tools: Turning Words Into Actions – Decision-Making Processes of Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs)

This paper deals with decision-making processes within those regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs) with the capacity to adopt management measures respecting either straddling or highly migratory fish stocks. The perception is that the decisions emanating from RFMOs are not achieving the goal of sustainable management of the fish stocks. Concerns raised in this regard are the perceived: non-adherence of RFMO decisions to science; lack of timeliness in making decisions; ability of RFMO members to avoid certain decisions; and adoption of management decisions that are not sufficiently rigorous. This contribution does not seek to evaluate the validity of the perception, rather it explores the manner in which RFMO conventions (the constitutive texts of RFMOs) deal with the decision-making process by looking at the trends within RFMOs, the challenges that exist and suggests ways to meet the challenges.

Thailand's fisheries: A victim of 200‐mile zones

Abstract During the 1970s, Thailand emerged as the major distant‐water fishing nation in Southeast Asia. By the 1980s, Thailands neighboring states had introduced 200‐nautical‐mile economic zones with the consequence that the Thai fishing industry faces a loss of approximately 300,000 square kilometers of fishing grounds that had been utilized by the Thai trawler fleet. The Thai fishing industry will face a difficult time in the next decade as neighboring states take action to remove foreign vessels from their 200‐mile zones and the Thais are forced into their small zones in the Gulf of Thailand and Andaman Sea. Thailand, as a developing country with a distant‐water fishing fleet, is a victim of the 200‐mile economic zones.

Increasing problems for Thailand's fisheries: Malaysia's new fisheries law

‘Pipop Laopatchan, ‘Thailand’s fishery problems subsequent to her neighbouring countries territorial seas expansion’, 1985, manuscript submitted to the Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, as part of the Southeast Asian Project on Ocean Law, Policy and Management (SEAPOL), p 12. *‘Vietnamese gunboats seize 300 fishermen’, Bangkok Post, 26 February 1985. 3Elizabeth D. Samson, ‘Fisheries’, in George Kent and Mark J. Valencia, eds, Marine Policy in Southeast Asia, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1985, p 146. Increasing problems for Thailand’s fisheries

Canada's Oceans Policy Framework: An Overview

The myth of national ocean policymaking is that there is a single path, structure, or instrument within which ocean policy is considered, adopted, implemented, and, where necessary, enforced. The reality is that a State and its citizens interact with the oceans in a multitude of different manners that defy and undermine an easy definition of national ocean policymaking as an explanation of that relationship. Within this premise, this article focuses on four matters respecting the framework of Canadas oceans policymaking: (a) where is Canadas oceans space in the Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans and the extent of jurisdiction that Canada can exercise over its adjacent ocean areas; (b) what is the constitutional context for oceans policymaking in Canada; (c) how are fisheries, hydrocarbons, and shipping legislatively and administratively managed; and (d) the 1996 Oceans Act and integrated ocean management.

Editorial -- Canada Ratifies the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea: At Last

First, I have been academic-in-residence in the Bureau of Legal Affairs of the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade since August 2002 and will continue until the end of July 2004. I am very grateful to my Foreign Affairs colleagues for giving me the opportunity to participate in and contribute, if only in a small way, to many of the processes and meetings that culminated in the long-overdue ratification by Canada of the Law of the Sea Convention. Nevertheless and most assuredly, the wording, choice of coverage, contents and opinions in this editorial are personal and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Government of Canada. Second, it is unusual to use valuable journal space for such a long editorial. I hope, however, that you find the results worthwhile and, if not, forgive the indulgence. Third, by using the rubric “an editorial,” I have taken the self-serving view that this allows the foregoing of normal footnoting. I have, however, sprinkled footnotes into the text in a modest manner.

Canada and whaling: An analysis of article 65 of the law of the sea convention

Article 65 of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea obligates states to cooperate with respect to conservation of marine mammals and, in particular, states are to work through the appropriate international organizations. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) is the principal international marine mammal organization. Following the permitted taking of two whales in the Canadian Arctic, the United States opined that, even though Canada was not a member of the IWC, Canada was obligated to adhere to the IWC whale moratorium because of Article 65. This article examines the relationship of Article 65 and the IWC and, more generally, the scope of the duty to cooperate in Article 65.

Canada's aggressive fisheries actions: Will they improve the climate for international agreements?

Recent unilateral Canadian actions to protect East and West Coast fisheries, while domestically popular, may not necessarily contribute to Canadas long‐term interests in a rules‐based international fisheries regime. The 1994 events analyzed in this article include the temporary imposition of transit licenses on American ships passing through the Pacific Coasts “Inside Passage,” and the introduction of legislation asserting jurisdiction over stocks straddling Canadian and international waters. A postscript addresses the recent turbot “war” between Canada and members of the European Union, particularly Spain.

The Continental Shelf Regime in the Law of the Sea Convention: A Reflection on the First Thirty Years

AbstractThe international legal regime of the continental shelf was largely adopted in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea without change from that in the 1958 Geneva Convention on the Continental Shelf. What was added in the 1982 Convention was that all States have a legal shelf out to 200 nautical miles (nm) and that beyond 200 nm there is a formula and process for States to establish their outer limit of the shelf. Amongst the several developments that have taken place in the last 30 years respecting the continental shelf regime noted in this article, the most surprising is the number of States that have indicated that they have an area of shelf beyond 200 nm, which far exceeds the number of States seen in 1982 as having such a possibility.

Implementation of the LOS convention: Options, impediments, and the ASEAN states

Abstract The six states of ASEAN are faced with the problem of interpreting and implementing the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention. One of the factors to be considered in implementation is the possible impediments to implementation that may exist. Nine different types of impediments are outlined with examples drawn from the ASEAN states. Despite the various impediments that may exist for the ASEAN states none of the impediments are serious enough to force a state to be unable to ratify the LOS Convention.