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.
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.
A l'été de 1985, la traversée du Passage du nord-ouest par le brise-glace américain Polar Sea retint substantiellement l'attention du Gouvernement et des médias au Canada. Bien que les États-Unis n'aient pas eu alors pour but de mettre en question la juridiction du Canada sur les eaux du Passage du nord-ouest, le Canada fut néanmoins obligé de réévaluer sa position quant au statut juridique des eaux internationales de même que la nature imprécise de ses prétentions sur certaines d'entre elles. L'article qui suit examine certaines questions, juridiques et extrajuridiques, soulevées par le voyage du Polar Sea. Il s'intéresse spécialement à la position prise par le Gouvernement canadien à cette occasion. L'attachement à la liberté de naviguer fit prendre aux Américains une attitude qui rendit difficile la riposte canadienne. Les mesures que prit le Canada, à savoir le tracé de lignes de base droites et l'annonce de la construction d'un nouveau brise-glace, furent minutieusement pesées afin qu'elles n'amènent pas les États-Unis à contester directement les prétentions canadiennes tout en ayant pour effet de rendre plus crédible l'affirmation voulant que les eaux du Passage du nord-ouest soient des eaux intérieures canadiennes dans lesquelles un bateau étranger ne peut naviguer sans permission
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