On 24 February 2017, a workshop entitled “Law Beyond Boundaries: innovative mechanisms for the integrated management of biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction” was held in Wollongong, Australia hosted by the Oceans and International Environmental Law Interest Group of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law, in association with the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security at the University of Wollongong. The aim of the workshop was to address the question, how can international law be used in innovative ways to effectively conserve and sustainably manage marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ)? In this introduction, we briefly summarize five of the papers developed for the workshop, highlighting the way in which they address three important themes: the promise and limits of existing institutional mechanisms governing activities in ABNJ; interactions between established principles and regimes for ABNJ; and the lessons that can be drawn from existing global and regional approaches to ABNJ. We hope that the ideas developed in this article theme set will contribute to the ongoing discussions at the United Nations General Assembly, as the international community works toward the development of an international legally binding instrument to govern activities in ABNJ.
The proliferation of the blue economy in political discourse has gained traction in recent years, however, there remains no standardized definition. The triple bottom line goals of economic development, social equity, and environmental conservation are at the center of the blue economy vision. Yet the ambiguities surrounding the term have resulted in considerable variation in how the blue economy is implemented and what is prioritized. This paper takes a global snapshot of current approaches to national level blue economy governance. In doing so this paper provides the first global assessment of blue economy implementation approaches, through the development of a global blue economy database. Using the best available information from policy documents, media releases and other publicly available online information, we comparatively analyzed each country’s governance strategy to assess the level of blue economy development in coastal states around the world. Throughout this paper we outline the novel methodological approach we took in order to develop a tool for analyzing national level blue economy implementation on the global scale. This approach will allow for ongoing and continued analysis of blue economy operationalization as the concept continues to evolve.
Under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC), coastal States have sovereign rights to explore, exploit, conserve, and manage the living resources of the 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ). However, nearly forty years after the adoption of the LOSC , there is still a great deal of uncertainty about the nature and extent of these sovereign rights. This book examines the ways in which coastal States can exercise authority on the basis of their sovereign rights over living resources in the EEZ. It explores the key concepts of ‘fishing’ and ‘fishing related activities’ to establish what vessels and which activities can be regulated by coastal States, canvasses the criteria and conditions that coastal States can apply as part of regulating foreign access to their resources, and considers the regulation of unlicensed foreign fishing vessels in transit through the EEZ. It also examines the way in which such regulations can be enforced within the EEZ and the circumstances under which enforcement can take place beyond the EEZ following hot pursuit. Based on its review and analysis of the practice of 145 coastal States, the book identifies the contemporary ‘extent’ of coastal State jurisdiction over living resources in the EEZ and proposes a formulation of the underlying and enduring ‘nature’ of that jurisdiction which could be applied to resolve future jurisdictional challenges in the EEZ.
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