Whaling in the High Seas - Conservatory obligations and customary law

• Main Author: Lindeberg, Malin
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: Lunds universitet/Juridiska fakulteten 2014
• Subjects: public international law; maritime law; Whaling; Law and Political Science; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/4519691

This thesis examines what conservatory obligations there are on whaling in customary law and international sources. The focus is on high sea whaling and the main international laws on the high sea concerning living resources and the main whaling conventions. The exploitation of marine mammals is regulated by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. These conventions obligate states to cooperate and take conservatory measures in order to avoid whales from being over-exploited. The specific whaling conventions, the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling and the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission, have different views on how to conserve whales and set different obligations. The International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling have set a moratorium which bans all commercial whaling. The customary law on whaling is not easy to determine. There is probably customary law on the obligation for states take conservatory measures and to cooperate with each other and in appropriate international organizations. How far this customary law stretches is not certain. Some states argue that the moratorium is customary law, but it is unlikely that obligations of the customary law stretches that far.