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The International Commission For The Northwest Atlantic Fisheries: An Experiment In Conservation, Peter Z. R. Finkle

Dalhousie Law Journal

From the sixteenth to the middle of the twentieth century the classical legal doctrine of the freedom of the high seas permitted the continuance of unregulated marine fisheries. At least beyond the narrow limits of the coastal state's territorial sea, the fisherman was generally recognized as free to ply his trade in whatever manner and to any extent he chose. Though disagreements about fishery matters were common in international diplomacy, states did not dispute their freedom to fish the high seas without regulation. Both in the Northeast and Northwest Atlantic the issues of fishery diplomacy were largely restricted to marketing …