Whales, science, and scientific whaling in the International Court of Justice

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• Main Author: Mangel, Marc
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: National Academy of Sciences 2016
• Subjects: Sackler Colloquium on Coupled Human and Environmental Systems; Antarctic; New Zealand; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5187686/; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27799524; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1604988113

I provide a brief review of the origins of the International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling and the failure to successfully regulate whaling that led to the commercial moratorium in 1986. I then describe the Japanese Whale Research Programs Under Special Permit in the Antarctica (JARPA I, JARPA II) and the origins of the case Whaling in the Antarctic (Australia v. Japan: New Zealand Intervening) in the International Court of Justice. I explain that the International Court of Justice chose to conduct an objective review of JARPA II, the standard that it used for the review, and the pathway that it took to adjudicate the case without providing a definition of science to be used in international law. I conclude with a brief discussion of the implications of the Judgment for the International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling, and the International Whaling Commission in particular, for other international treaties, and for the interaction of science and law more generally.