The European Community and the Fight Against Illegal Fishing: The Effective Exercise of Jurisdiction and Control of the Flag-state

Research PaperCombating illegal fishing is one of the major difficulties the International Law of the Sea faces. The European Community is aware of this problem and has taken some measures to fight against illegal fishing, amongst which there are those related to the effective exercise of jurisdiction and control of the Flag-State over its fishing fleet. This paper tries to extract some criteria that allow to better define the genuine link and the effective responsibility of the Flag-State over the flagship boats within in. It also proposes that the authentic relation that should exist between a State and a vessel that is granted that State’s flag should be the ability of that State to exercise effective control over the vessel. If such a control does not exist, no genuine link exists. This suggested characterisation of the genuine link would move away from the traditional economic and internal vision into the field of international responsibility whereby a non-fulfillment of a behaviour obligation which could be, in some cases, an erga onnes obligation