Book Review: International Law and Organization: The International Law of Fisheries

DOI10.1177/002070206702200116
AuthorPeter Wright
Date01 March 1967
Published date01 March 1967
Subject MatterBook Review
BooK
REviEws
101
THE
INTERNATIONAL LAW
OF FISHERIES.
A
Framework
for
Poicy-Oriented
Inquiries.
By
Douglas
M.
Johnston.
1965.
(New Haven:
Yale
Umver
sity
Press.
Montreal:
McGill
University
Press.
xxiv
554pp.
$12.50)
This
is
a
challenging, useful and
important
book.
It
is
challenging
because
it
advocates
a
new
look
at
the
rules
which
should
govern
the
international arrangements
for
the
conservation
and
exploitation
of
ocean
fish.
It
is
useful
because
it
is
a
careful,
thoughtful,
and
complete
survey
of
the
international
agreements
and
decisions
affecting
sea
fisheries.
It
is
important
because
what
happens
to
the
world's
fish
is
directly
related
to
what
happens
to
the
world's
increasing
human
population.
The
new
look
which
it
advocates
is
in
essence
a
world
as against
a
national
viewpoint.
It
seeks
the
use
of
a
"social
science
of
the
sea"
that
the
world
community
may
pass
from
an "era
of
negotiation
and
adjudication
to
one
of
codification
and
progressive
development
by
general
convention. This
is
a
challenge
to
the
lawyer
and
the
citizen.
What
do
we
want?
A
world
plan
or national
or
entrenched
rights
9
There
is
little
doubt
what
we
should
want
if
we
believe
in
the
brother
hood of
man
and
his
continued existence
on
this
planet.
However
the
question
be
answered
for
the future,
this
book
supplies
a
valuable
record
and analysis
of
the factors,
agreements
and
decisions
of
the
past.
These
are
summarized in
such
works
as
Colombos'
Inter-
national
Law
of
the
Sea
in
a
few
pages
but
Mr.
Johnston's
whole
work
is
among
other
things a
painstaking
review
of
what
has
been
and
is
being done. Anyone
concerned
with
any
aspect
of
the international
law
of
fisheries
can
use
this
book
and
indeed
would be
foolish
to
work
with-
out
it.
It
is
well
printed
and
bound
and
has
a
particularly attractive
dust
cover
on
which
determined
fish
fend
to
and
fro.
There
are
omissions
in
proof
reading
(e.g.,
at
p.
462
in
note
27
"Marshall"
should
read
"Marshal", and
at
p.
278
line
9,
"Bristol
Boy"
should
read "Bristol
Bay")
and
in
indexing
(e.g.,
Canadian conservation
regulations
are
discussed
in
note
54
at
p.
272
and
not
indexed).
There
is much
valuable
material
and
comment
on
Canada.
Indeed
if
we
count pages
it
would
appear
that
Canada
means more
to
fish
writers
than
she
means
to
the
military
and
political
historians
and
memoirists
of
other lands
who
deal
with
the
tides
in
the affairs
of
men
in
which
Canada
has
had
a
part
and
has
lost
her
men.
But
there
may
be
a
wry
satisfaction
that
in
this
book
Canadian
fish
are
recog-
nized
as creatures
of
some significance,
fit
denizens
of
Rupert
Brooke's
"Heaven.
The
importance
of
the
book
arises
from
its
clear and
eloquent
enunciation
of
the
necessity
of
an
international
regime
for
the protection
and use
of
the
fish
of
the
sea.
The
real
question
for
the
future
is
not
how
the
fishermen
of
the
nations
of
the
world
are
to
be
protected
for
their
working life
by
national
power
and
pretensions.
It
is
whether
in
this
field,
as
in
so
many
others,
man
can
use
and preserve
for
the
benefit of
all,
and
to
the
glory
of his
God,
the
world
he
has inherited.

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