Global fisheries regulations in the first half of the 1990s

This article analyses the main global instruments that aim to regulate fishing activities and that were adopted during the first half of the 1990s. These instruments are the UNGA Driftnet Resolutions; the sections on fisheries in Chapter 17 of Agenda 21; the FAO Compliance Agreement; the Straddling Stocks Agreement; the FAO Code of Conduct; and the documents adopted under the Biodiversity Convention. After discussing these instruments, the author concludes that they reflect a fundamental alteration of the discourse on fisheries conservation and management policies. The agenda now includes items as the application of the precautionary approach and the exercise of enforcement competences in high seas areas by states other than the flag state. However, the instruments only to a limited extent address the problems that arose in international fisheries relations in the '1980s and early 1990s. In addition, this article illustrates that as a result of the ample room for bona fide differences of interpretation inherent in the two treaty instruments, the precise rights and duties of states remain uncertain.

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