The World Trade Organization and its contribution to the evolution of the law of the sea

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Lennan, Mitchell and Switzer, Stephanie; Oanta, Gabriela A., ed. (2025) The World Trade Organization and its contribution to the evolution of the law of the sea. In: The Presence of International Organizations in the Evolution of the International Law of the Sea. Brill Nijhoff, Leiden, pp. 85-118. ISBN 9789004716315 (https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004716315_007)

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Abstract

This chapter evaluates the contribution of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to the development of the law of the sea, specifically the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and its related agreements. It evaluates this contribution with a particular focus upon the WTO dispute settlement process, before looking at the potential of the first WTO agreement to directly address an environmental goal, the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies (AFS), to contribute to the evolution of the law of the sea. It argues that the AFS helps support both the objectives of the law of the sea and the WTO in the ‘the equitable and efficient utilization of their resources, the conservation of their living resources, and the study, protection and preservation of the marine environment’ and ‘the optimal use of the world’s resources in accordance with the objective of sustainable development’, respectively. The chapter further argues that AFS has the potential to contribute to the development of the law of the sea as an instrument of international fisheries law. However, there are limits to this potential, in part due to the difficulties WTO Members have encountered in reaching consensus on disciplining subsidies on overfishing and overcapacity, which has left the AFS as ‘incomplete.’ However, definitional vagueness also stymies the AFS, particularly around, for example, IUU fishing which may undermine its potential to contribute to the evolution of the law of the sea.

ORCID iDs

Lennan, Mitchell and Switzer, Stephanie ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3928-988X; Oanta, Gabriela A.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)