HIGH SEAS FISHING - TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE REGIME

High seas fisheries have become an important focus for concern. The fa ilure to impose order in areas of international jurisdiction threatens the viability of the coastal states' attempts to manage resources wit hin their 200 mile limits. The paper analyses the nature of high seas fisheries in the light of different property regimes. It suggests that the new regime, created in the 1990s largely as a result of the UN Co nference on Straddling Stocks and Highly Migratory Species, effectivel y extends the influence of the coastal state into international waters and expresses reservations that effective management cannot be achiev ed without due respect for the concept of the commons.