[PEN-L:29913] Re: over-fishing

["Ian Murray" <seamus2001@xxxxxxxxx>]

over-fishing
----- Original Message -----
From: Devine, James

>>
It's pretty basic economics that the existence of so-called "common-property resources"
such as fish leads to over-fishing, the depletion of stocks. (For these CPRs, there is no
way to define individual property rights unless some capitalist monopolizes the ocean, so
they are "common property.")

================

The overwhelming number of fish stocks of the sea are non-property rather than "cpr". They
are in a Lockean SON as far as international law is concerned. Would that we could get
some common property regimes going to ameliorate a disaster. The concept of private
property has no inherent "efficiency" advantages on the scale of such large -and mobile-
ecosystems.




>>
This in turn implies the need for some sort of governmental (or, in the case of the
oceans, world-governmental) control to make sure that the fisheries don't undermine their
own existence. (A fishery that monopolizes the ocean ends up being very much the same as a
government, though not a democratic one. Either way, it's an explicit socialization of
production.) Of course, the fisheries lobby like crazy to avoid this kind of regulation:
their attitude seems to be one of short-term survival and jump ahead of the competition,
rather than a concern with the long-run health of the "industry." Even when there are
agreements, there is often "free riding." So we see over-fishing.

Oil has some aspects of a CPR (as with slant-drilling), but it's not the same thing at
all.
------------------------
Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine

=================

Perhaps the time for dusting off  and modifying Arvid Pardo's concept of "the common
heritage of mankind" arguments regarding the ocean floor is upon us and we can appropriate
"global public goods" arguments for our own purposes.

Ian

http://www.russia-cislaw.com/books/itep.htm
Intergenerational Trusts And Environmental Protection
Catherine Redgwell is now University Lecturer in Public International Law and Fellow of
St. Peter's College, Oxford.


http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu25ee/uu25ee00.htm#Contents
Environmental change and international law: New challenges and dimensions
Edited by
Edith Brown Weiss
United Nations University Press
The United Nations University, 1992

http://www.aae.wisc.edu/bromley/pdfs/URICONCEIT.pdf
THE CONCEIT OF MANAGEMENT: NATURAL SYSTEMS AND HUMAN VOLITION

http://www.aae.wisc.edu/bromley/pdfs/sjadbrom.pdf
THE PREJUDICES OF PROPERTY RIGHTS: ON INDIVIDUALISM, SPECIFICITY, AND SECURITY IN PROPERTY
REGIMES

http://www.indiana.edu/~iascp/index.html
[Elinor Ostrom's group]