Strengthening International Fisheries Law in an Era of Changing Oceans edited by Richard Caddell and Erik Molenaar Published by Hart, 2019, 478 pp., £91.80, hardback.

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12322
• Published date: 01 April 2020
• Date: 01 April 2020
• Author: Julia Nakamura

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  RECIEL. 2020;29:138–144.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/reel

DOI: 10 .1111/reel .12322

BOOK REVIEWS

STRENGTHENING INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES

LAW IN AN ERA OF CHANG ING OCEANS edited by

Richard Caddell and Erik Molenaar

Published by H art, 2019, 478 pp., £91.80, h ardback.

The title Strengthening International Fisheries Law in an Era of Changing

Oceans well reflect s the view permeatin g the contents of the book . In

this collecti on, every chapter reso nates with the vision plu nked at the

front page. Inter national experts with di verse degrees of experience

and professional backgrounds, including pre-eminent scientists, econ-

omists, a social anthropologist and international legal academics make

up for an outst anding list of contrib utors. This robust ou tlook of inter-

national fishe ries law avoids purely legali stic points of view, which do

not offer sufficient resolutions for dealing with fisheries sust ainability

in a constantly c hanging environment. The ‘cha nging oceans’ circum-

stances not on ly point to one of the reaso ns why international f ish-

eries law needs a ma keover, but it also attracts the mi nds of curious

readers wishi ng to know more about the ne xus between intern ational

law, fisheries, marine science, environmental changes and the oceans.

A good title is just t he starting p oint of this forward-lo oking piece

of work. The edito rs’ contributions i n the introductio n and con-

cluding chapter s properly sketch th e collection’s centra l idea while

enforcing and con necting the input s of each of the other 19 contrib-

utors. Cadd ell and Molenaar begin wi th an overview of internat ional

fisheries law (Ch apter 1), emphasizing it s ‘paramount limitat ion’ (at 9)

concerning Stat es’ reluctance, inab ility, lack of compliance and of ten

opposabilit y to this domain’s improveme nt, matters which j ustify the

purpose for and t he importance of the collec tion. The book’s three

substantive parts label key contemporary issues for strengthening

international fisheries law, namely: (i) the interplay between law, sci-

ence and managem ent; (ii) the ecosys tem approach to fishe ries (EAF)

management; an d (iii) compliance and e nforcement. It is dif ficult,

however, to delineate mat ters that are inevit ably interrelated , and

which comprise t he overall demands in i nternational fish eries law.

If the reader is at tracted to one of those issue s, a suggestion would

therefore be not to l imit the reading to just one pa rt of the book, as

each chapter ca n provide useful insights to a ny given issue.

Cheung, Lam , Ota and Swart z (Chapter 2) provide the ir inputs

from non-legal p erspectives to a ddress four main chal lenges to

existing and f uture fisheries ma nagement arising fro m the climate

change impact s on marine capture fis heries. It is well demons trated,

for instance, h ow the shifts in sp ecies distribut ion caused by cli-

mate change can hin der shared stocks m anagement and affe ct the

accuracy of man agement assessment s. In contrast to this technica l

analysis, a the oretical reflec tion by Barnes (Chap ter 3) suggests to

‘counter-factually’ e xamine internation al fisheries law by tes ting

it vis-à-vis the domain of international envir onmental law. Barnes’

arguments le ad one to envision more im pactful ways an d ideas to

adapt fisheri es management to a dyna mic world, which ste ms also

from human imagi nation and mindful cr eation. This thou ght exper-

iment is particularly useful to counter the predictable and static as-

sumptions of law, makin g one think creativel y about possible ways

to improve the effe ctiveness of curre nt legal systems and f uture reg-

ulations. A str aightforward analysis by St okke (Chapter 4) then sets

out an agenda for hig h seas fisheries managers, w ho include repre-

sentatives of fl ag States acting ind ependently or wit hin a regional

fisheries reg ime. Such an agenda is sim plified around th ree funda-

mental task s of cognitional, regul atory and behavioural natur es – a

critical sug gestion to approac h the high seas area whi ch, for not

falling under t he jurisdiction of any par ticular State’s purv iew, is nor-

mally heavily com plex, if at all managed. In the regio nal framework

context, Har rison (Chapter 5) provid es a clear and compre hensive

analysis of the tre nds that have facilit ated both the consolid ation

of regional fishe ries governance as a sys tem and the collabor ation

among certain actors, particularly regional fisher y bodies (RFBs).

If one has questi oned whether RFBs have e volved in their ways of

functioning and decision-making procedures, Harrison’s dedicated

in-depth analy sis supports the view t hat certain RFBs have done so,

providing an impo rtant study fo r future developme nts in regional

fisheries gover nance. In turn, Mole naar (Chapter 6) improves o ne’s

knowledge abou t participation of St ates and entities in RFB s, clarify-

ing relevant issu es, including the legal fra mework and the influence

of political inte rests that underpi n the membership of RFBs. T hough

limited to some RFB s, the analysis provid es a useful comparison of

their memberships; the corresponding status held by countries, fish-

ing entities and o rganizations; the legal basi s for their eligibility cri-

teria and the RFB ’s accession procedures.

The EAF manage ment part of the coll ection begins wit h Caddell

(Chapter 7) clarifying the forums which the recent developments

in internationa l fisheries law at the gl obal level stem from , which

are not solely fro m law of the sea instrum ents. This intere sting

analysis may make one i nvestigate how other fisher ies issues have

been elabora ted and evolved from the U nited Nations Gene ral

Assembly (UNGA) resolutions and/or multilateral environmental

agreements . For instance, simila rly to Caddell’s analy sis, the reader

may note that the deb ate around unauthorized f ishing was initially

addressed in UN GA resolutions an d later subject to spe cific pol-

icy and legal developments on illegal, unreported and unregulated

(IUU) fishing. T his was also the case of UN GA resolutions on by-

catch and disca rds, which could have be en mentioned as to link

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