Numerous international legal regimes now seek to address the global depletion of fish stocks, and increasingly their activities overlap. The relevant laws were developed at different times by different groups of states. They are motivated by divergent economic approaches, influenced by disparate non-state actors, and implemented by separate institutions such as the World Trade Organization and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Margaret Young shows how these and other factors affect the interaction between regimes. Her empirical and doctrinal analysis moves beyond the discussion of conflicting norms that has dominated the fragmentation debate. Case-studies include the negotiation of new rules on fisheries subsidies, the restriction of trade in endangered marine species and the adjudication of fisheries import bans. She explores how regimes should interact, in fisheries governance and beyond, to offer insights into the practice and legitimacy of regime interaction in international law.

This book examines the legality, adequacy and efficacy of using the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) for commercially-exploited fish species and assesses whether the existing institutional cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) is efficient. This case-study also provides an interesting lens to approaching wider international law issues. Indeed, finding ways to achieve effective governance of transboundary or global natural resources is central to the peaceful use of oceans and land. Furthermore, the role of science in advising decision-makers is a sensitive issue, which deserves scrutiny and is similar in many regimes. Finally, the complex problem of fragmentation of international law is acute in various fields of environmental law, as in all rapidly developing areas of international regulations.

This collection addresses the central question of how the current international framework for the regulation of fisheries may be strengthened in order to meet the challenges posed by changing fisheries and ocean conditions, in particular climate change. International fisheries law has developed significantly since the 1990s, through the adoption and establishment of international instruments and bodies at the global and regional levels. Global fish stocks nevertheless remain in a troubling state, and fisheries management authorities face a wide array of internal and external challenges, including operational constraints, providing effective management advice in the face of scientific uncertainty and non-compliance by States with their international obligations. This book examines these challenges and identifies options and pathways to strengthen international fisheries law. While it has a primarily legal focus, it also features significant contributions from specialists drawn from other disciplines, notably fisheries science, economics, policy and international relations, in order to provide a fuller context to the legal, policy and management issues raised. Rigorous and comprehensive in scope, this will be essential reading for lawyers and non-lawyers interested in international fisheries regulation in the context of profoundly changing ocean conditions.

A timely, thought-provoking and innovative reappraisal of the core actors on the international stage: states.

In recent years, an increasing number of commercially exploited and managed aquatic species, including sharks and rays, have been listed in the Appendices to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The listing of some species in CITES Appendix II has necessitated attention from the fisheries sector of States on how listing would impact on the management of the relevant fisheries. This sourcebook and the research process involved in its development highlighted the opportunity to implement CITES through national fisheries legal frameworks. Indeed, in certain cases, doing so can prove to be vital in giving practical effect to CITES while simultaneously enhancing fisheries management regimes and ensuring that all activities along the fisheries value chain, especially the international trade in CITES-listed aquatic species, are legal, traceable and sustainable. The study recognizes that communities operating within the CITES regime and in the fisheries sectors have their own particular areas of work. However, they should cooperate and coordinate their work where they share the common high-level objectives of ensuring responsible, legal and sustainable utilization of resources, including species, biodiversity and ecosystems, and implementing the relevant Sustainable Development Goals. This sourcebook was first published in 2020, designated as a "super year" for nature and biodiversity. The second edition of this sourcebook was developed to take into account and reflect the outcomes of the 19th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES, in 2022. The sourcebook is a timely and useful contribution to fisheries management as it seeks to provide support in: (i) raising awareness of CITES; (ii) enhancing comprehension of the CITES regime and its relationship with the fisheries sector; and (iii) where a deliberate decision is made by a country to implement CITES through its national fisheries legal frameworks, providing guidance on what to do and how to do it.

Leading scholars advance the discussion of international law's fragmentation in new and provocative ways.

An increasing number of commercially exploited and managed aquatic species has been listed in the Appendices to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), triggering the attention from the fisheries sector of States on how listing would impact on the management of the relevant fisheries. CITES regulates international trade in certain aquatic species, including those which are, and can be, commercially exploited and which are being managed by the fisheries sector. The fisheries sector legal frameworks will have to recognize and enable the various requirements provided for in CITES, including the making of non-detriment findings and ensuring that there is a designated management authority and scientific authority to take certain decisions in respect of listed commercially exploited and managed aquatic species. This sourcebook provides clarifications on the relationship of CITES with the fisheries sector and provides guidance on how national fisheries legal frameworks can optimize the implementation of CITES. The realisation of this sourcebook in 2020, designated as a “super year” for nature and biodiversity, represents a timely and useful contribution to fisheries management, by (i) raising awareness of CITES; (ii) enhancing comprehension of the CITES regime and its relationship with the fisheries sector and (iii) where a deliberate decision is made by a country to implement CITES through its national fisheries legal frameworks, providing guidance as to what do it and how to do it.