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Developments In Australian Fisheries Law: Setting The Law Of The Sea Convention Adrift?, Warwick Gullett Nov 2011

Developments In Australian Fisheries Law: Setting The Law Of The Sea Convention Adrift?, Warwick Gullett

Warwick Gullett

Significant developments have recently occurred in the ongoing campaign by the Australian Government to combat illegal foreign fishing in Australian waters, particularly against Patagonian toothfish poaching. On 22 March 2004 significant amendments to Australia’s fisheries laws were passed by the Commonwealth Parliament to improve regulatory efficiency and combat illegal foreign fishing in the Australian Fishing Zone (AFZ). In addition, on 12 March 2004 the Federal Court of Australia delivered a landmark decision in Olbers v Commonwealth of Australia (No 4) [2004] FCA 229 concerning the automatic forfeiture of foreign vessels to the Commonwealth of Australia at the time when a …


Environmental Protection And The Precautionary Principle: A Response To Scientific Uncertainty In Environmental Management, Warwick Gullett Nov 2011

Environmental Protection And The Precautionary Principle: A Response To Scientific Uncertainty In Environmental Management, Warwick Gullett

Warwick Gullett

The principle of precautionary action has been presented by some of its advocates as nothing less than a monumental paradigm shift in environmental management. It is essentially a new legal response to the scientific uncertainties surrounding the capacity ofthe environment to cope with the increasing demands placed upon it. This article outlines why our knowledge of environmental processes is inadequate and addresses the rationale and content of the "precautionary principle", tracing its development from an uncontroversial espousal of commonsense to its emergence as a potentially forceful decision-making norm. It will be argued tliat although the principle has definitional and implementational …


Enforcing Bycatch Reduction In Trawl Fisheries: Legislating For The Use Of Turtle Exclusion Devices, Warwick Gullett Nov 2011

Enforcing Bycatch Reduction In Trawl Fisheries: Legislating For The Use Of Turtle Exclusion Devices, Warwick Gullett

Warwick Gullett

The mandatory use of bycatch reduction devices (BRDs) in prawn trawl fisheries is now commonplace in Australia. BRDs are designed to allow unwanted or juvenile species to escape fishing nets with consequent benefits for the abundance of such species, species which prey on them, and general ecosystem integrity. In the Queensland East Coast Trawl Fishery, as well as in a handful of other Australian prawn trawl fisheries, specific turtle excluder devices (TEDs) are required to prevent turtles from entering the codend section of trawl nets. This article reviews international and Australian legal measures to protect turtles from prawn trawl fishing …


Environmental Impact Assessment And The Precautionary Principle: Legislating Caution In Environmental Protection, Warwick Gullett Nov 2011

Environmental Impact Assessment And The Precautionary Principle: Legislating Caution In Environmental Protection, Warwick Gullett

Warwick Gullett

A noteworthy feature of international environmental discourse since the late-1980s has been the shift toward anticipatory policies. Precaution is the leading policy approach that has emerged to guide environmental decision-makers confronted with inadequate information. The "precautionary principle" has found expression in Australia in the 1992 Intergovernmental Agreement on the Environment, various Commonwealth environmental management strategies and a number of pieces of Commonwealth and State legislation. It also has been accepted tentatively by the courts as a factor which should be taken into account in appropriate circumstances. However, existing Australian environmental management approaches fail to advance precaution in a substantive manner. …


Transportation Systems, Warwick Gullett Nov 2011

Transportation Systems, Warwick Gullett

Warwick Gullett

As China expands its economy, increases its population, and opens up to the outside world, its political leaders and urban designers face increased pressure to create more efficient and environmentally friendly transportation systems.


Relying On Fishy Advice: The Ostrowski Decision, Warwick Gullett Nov 2011

Relying On Fishy Advice: The Ostrowski Decision, Warwick Gullett

Warwick Gullett

On 16 June 2004, the High Court of Australia decided in Ostrowski v Palmer [2004] HCA 30 that the defence of honest and reasonable mistake of fact cannot be used on the basis that a commission of a strict liability offence was induced by the provision of misleading advice from a government agency. In the case the High Court reinstated a conviction against a Western Australian rock lobster fisherman for fishing in a marine life protection zone despite the fact that the fisherman, Mr Jeffrey Palmer, had gone to the WA Fisheries Department to find out where he could fish, …


Up The Creek And Out At Sea: The Resurfacing Of The Public Right To Fish, Warwick Gullett Nov 2011

Up The Creek And Out At Sea: The Resurfacing Of The Public Right To Fish, Warwick Gullett

Warwick Gullett

The ancient common law public right to fish has had increasing resonance since 2001 when the High Court in Yarmirr denied the existence of asserted exclusive offshore native title rights in large part because of the “fundamental inconsistency” between them and the public right to fish. The Yarmirr decision also established that non-exclusive offshore native title rights must be consistent with the public right. This creates the potential for litigation where it is asserted that actions of native title holders have infringed the public right or where recreational anglers purportedly exercising the public right in an area subject to a …


Balancing Short Term Impacts And Long Term Interests In Fisheries Management Decisions, K Crosthwaite, Warwick Gullett Nov 2011

Balancing Short Term Impacts And Long Term Interests In Fisheries Management Decisions, K Crosthwaite, Warwick Gullett

Warwick Gullett

In the latest of a series of merits review decisions by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) concerning the correct construction to be given to the Australian Fisheries Management Authority's (AFMA's) statutory objective to ensure that the exercise of the precautionary principle is 'pursued', the AAT has affirmed the decision under review as having being made reasonably and correctly in pursuit of the principle. This article explains the reason for the AAT's recent decision in Craig Justice v Australian Fisheries Management Authority and Executive Director, Department of Fisheries Western Australia (hereafter Justice v AFMA) which affirmed AFMA's implementation of the consultative …


Legal Framework And Enforcement Experience Of Marine Protected Areas In Tasmania, New South Wales And Commonwealth Waters, Warwick Gullett Nov 2011

Legal Framework And Enforcement Experience Of Marine Protected Areas In Tasmania, New South Wales And Commonwealth Waters, Warwick Gullett

Warwick Gullett

With the exception of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, there have been no prosecutions for specific offences within marine protected areas (MPAs) in Australia at the federal level or in Tasmania and New South Wales. However, it cannot be assumed that compliance is responsible for this lack of prosecutions. Rather, in some cases, enforcement officers prosecute offences under more general provisions found in fisheries legislation than under provisions for specific offences created in MPAs. In other cases, there has been a long lag time between the declaration of MPAs and the adoption of comprehensive and effective legislative arrangements creating …


Substantive Precautionary Decision-Making: The Australian Fisheries Management Authority's 'Lawful Pursuit' Of The Precautionary Principle, Warwick Gullett, Christopher Paterson, Elizabeth Fisher Nov 2011

Substantive Precautionary Decision-Making: The Australian Fisheries Management Authority's 'Lawful Pursuit' Of The Precautionary Principle, Warwick Gullett, Christopher Paterson, Elizabeth Fisher

Warwick Gullett

In this article, the authors review recent Administrative Appeals Tribunal decisions concerning the Australian Fisheries Management Authority's exercise of discretionary powers in pursuit of its statutory objective to ensure that the exploitation of fisheries resources is conducted in a manner consistent ,vith the exercise of the precautionary principle. The most recent of a series of Tribunal decisions which have affirmed the Authority's interpretation and application of the principle as contained in the Fisheries Management Act 1991 (Cth) is discussed in detail, together with Federal Court rulings concerning the content of the Authority's statutory obligation to ensure that fisheries cxploitation maximises …


Smooth Sailing For Australia's Automatic Forfeiture Of Foreign Fishing Vessels, Warwick Gullett Nov 2011

Smooth Sailing For Australia's Automatic Forfeiture Of Foreign Fishing Vessels, Warwick Gullett

Warwick Gullett

The High Court of Australia has brought to a close one chapter of the various legal proceedings arising out of Australia’s arrest of the Russian fishing vessel Volga in 2002. The vessel was arrested on the high seas immediately adjacent to Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) surrounding the Heard and McDonald Islands in the Southern Ocean. It was suspected (and later found as a matter of fact) to have been engaged in unlawful fishing for the prized Patagonian Toothfish within Australia’s EEZ two to three weeks prior to its detection and seizure by Australian authorities. The circumstances of the seizure …


Prompt Release Procedures And The Challenge For Fisheries Law Enforcement: The Judgement Of The International Tribunal For The Law Of The Sea In The 'Volga' Case (Russian Federation V Australia), Warwick Gullett Nov 2011

Prompt Release Procedures And The Challenge For Fisheries Law Enforcement: The Judgement Of The International Tribunal For The Law Of The Sea In The 'Volga' Case (Russian Federation V Australia), Warwick Gullett

Warwick Gullett

On 23 December 2002, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ('ITLOS') ordered the prompt release of the Russian 1ongline fishing vessel Volga, at the time detained by Australian authorities in Fremantle, upon the posting of a bond or other security of A$l 920 000. The Volga was arrested for allegedly fishing without authorisation by a boarding party from the Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Canberra in the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone ('EEZ') surrounding Heard and McDonald Islands in the Southern Ocean on 7 Februarv 2002. At issue in the ITLOS proceedings was not whether the activities of …