The Fisheries Proposals: An Assessment

Several major proposals for the regulation or division of the international fisheries were made at the Law of the Sea Conference at Caracas, Venezuela in 1974. Law is typically evolved through controversy with many inherent limitations and costs. There will not be, in fact cannot be, an optimal body of law for the utilization of the sea. What can be hoped for, though, is a corpus juris that will be responsive to natural and societal limitations and demands.

It is chiefly with this criterion in mind that the following assessment has been made of some of the fisheries proposals.