Uncertain, unstable and unequal: Can regime interaction help international fisheries law address anthropocene challenges?

Abstract

The term “Anthropocene” has become ubiquitous within debates on the future of international environmental law. While contested, it can generally be understood to refer to the fundamental idea that the world has entered a new era in which human activities, more than any other factor, are the driving force for change within the Earth system. This concept has inspired a rethinking of traditional international environmental law in line with the challenges that are expected to result from human-induced environmental impacts. This article explores how the Anthropocene will challenge international fisheries law and how understanding the role of regime interaction as a central characteristic of international law will be a necessary part of addressing these challenges. In order to determine what might be said to constitute Anthropocene conditions the article explores the effects of human activities on two core planetary boundaries, climate change and biosphere integrity, in the context of the world’s oceans. Through examining the human-induced threats to these boundaries, common themes of uncertainty, instability and inequality within the Anthropocene ocean are identified, highlighting broadly the ways in which the current international fisheries legal regime alone is inadequate to achieve its goals in the Anthropocene context. This article proposes that enhanced regime interaction, between related regimes such as international fisheries law, international climate change law and international biodiversity law could allow international fisheries law to be more readily able to meet the uncertain, unstable and unequal Anthropocene context.