Evaluating the Effectiveness of the EU Environmental Liability and Environmental Crime Directives as Implemented by Scotland and the Rest of the United Kingdom

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Fisheries Redistribution under Climate Change : Rethinking the Law to Address the ‘Governance Gap’?

Publisher PD

Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Strengthening intergenerational equity at the ocean-climate nexus : reflections on the UNCRC general comment No.26+

The 2021 Glasgow Climate Pact brought the ocean into the international climate regime, and the 2022 Sharm el-Sheikh COP27 of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has finally ushered the world into a special fund to respond to loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change, including on the human rights of present and future generations. But much remains to be clarified about how ocean-based mitigation, adaptation, finance and technology will contribute to inter-generational equity. To shed light on these issues, this article starts from the premise that the ocean is an essential but little-understood component of the interdependency between climate change and human rights. It is followed by an exploration of the importance of a healthy ocean for children’s human rights as a way to advance inter-generational equity under the 30-year-old (1992–2022) UNFCCC through systemic interpretation. The upcoming General Comment on children’s rights and the environment with a special focus on climate change (General Comment No. 26) by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child presents an opportunity to clarify the role of existing international human rights obligations in strengthening intergenerational equity at the climate-ocean interface on the basis of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). This appears vital to ensure coordination across intergovernmental bodies and national government departments to safeguard ocean-dependent children’s human rights through climate policy and action at different levels

Conservation of Fisheries Resources and Protection of the Marine Environment Post-Brexit: : International Obligations

Publisher PD

World Trade Organization Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies

At the 12th Ministerial Conference in June 2022, Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) reached a historic Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies that aims to contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This article provides the necessary background to the Agreement, tracing briefly the history to the negotiations. After a general overview of the Agreement, three key provisions of the Agreement are examined, namely, the prohibition of subsidies to (1) illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, (2) the fishing of overexploited stocks, and (3) fisheries on the high seas outside the competence of regional fisheries management organisations. The provisions of the Agreement on special and differential treatment in favour of developing and least developed countries, as well as notable procedural and institutional features, are also considered. The remaining issues still to be addressed at the WTO are highlighted in the conclusion

The Glasgow Climate Conference (COP26)

After over a decade of international efforts to include the ocean in the policy discussions at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) annual Conference of the Parties (COP), the ocean has finally been included by, inter alia, a reference to 'ocean-based action' in a series of COP outcomes, notable among which is the cover decisions known as the 'Glasgow Climate Pact'. This article provides the necessary background to the inclusion of the ocean in COP26 outcomes, including the Pact, and examines key issues, impacts and shortfalls of the Pact and other COP26 outcomes, including mitigation, adaptation, finance and human rights. It concludes with suggestions for priority research areas moving forward

Introduction : applying a human rights lens to the ocean-climate nexus

We have known that climate change negatively impacts on the marine environment since the 1990s. And we are increasingly aware of the role the ocean plays in climate regulation, although we are still unveiling the full extent, and the fragility, of the contributions of deep-sea ecosystems to climate change mitigation. Meanwhile, the effects of climate change on individuals and communities are increasingly understood as human rights threats and violations, and some climate change responses have been identified as threats to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, including marine biodiversity

The Fisheries Act 2020 and Devolution

Publisher PD

International legal responses for protecting fishers’ fundamental rights impacted by a changing ocean

Climate change directly impacts the marine landscape where fishers operate. Most fishers rely on fishing for food, income and/or employment. A changing ocean can therefore significantly impact fishers' lives and hinder the full exercise of their rights of access to fisheries resources, rights to fish, to food, to work, to culture, and to a healthy, clean and sustainable environment. This article questions whether international law supports the protection of fishers' fundamental rights in the changing ocean context. The authors begin by elucidating what such context means to fishers and their rights, taking special account of small-scale fishers and vulnerable groups. The obligations of States Parties to key instruments under the law of the sea and international climate change law, vis-à-vis States' obligations under human rights treaties and other relevant international guidance, are explored with a view to furthering the protection of fishers impacted by a changing ocean