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Who Speaks For The Fish? The Tragedy Of Europe's Common Fisheries Policy, Emily Self

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The Common Fisheries Policy, enacted in 1983 as the European Union's primary overfishing regulation scheme, is widely regarded as a failure. Vast over exploitation in Europe's fisheries persists thirty years later, posing grave ecological consequences as well as economic devastation to Europe's fishing industry. In 2013, the EU overhauled the Common Fisheries Policy and enacted measures that oblige the EU and member states to support ecologically sustainable fishing practices, ban the harmful practice of discarding fish at sea, and give the member states more flexibility to tailor implementation to suit local conditions. While the 2013 reforms were momentous, those changes …