Allocation of Demersal Harvest Rights in Iceland

Abstract

It is generally understood that since 1984 the Icelandic fishery man- agement system has been based on individual transferable quotas (ITQs), that licenses for commercial fishing in Iceland were allocated to owners of vessels according to their fishing activity for the period 1 November 1982 through 31 October 1983, and quota shares in the demersal fisheries (usually 70–80 % of the annual catch value) were allocated according to the catch history of vessels in the period 1 November 1980 through 31 October 1983. Several judgements have been based on these premises. The aim of this article is to illustrate that the Icelandic fishery management system has by no means been a 100 % ITQ system since 1984, and that alloca- tion of fishing licenses and quotas in the demersal fisheries in Iceland has been far more complicated than the aforementioned understanding would indicate. In fact since 1984 the Icelandic system has evolved more by trial-and-error than by design, and a substantial portion of the demersal quota shares have been reallocated. These reallocations should influence how the system is judged and evaluated. Keywords: fisheries management, ITQs, allocation of fishing rights, equality, property right, freedom of employment Citation: Arctic Review on Law and Politics, vol. 1, 2/2010 p. 299-318. ISSN 1891-6252