The 2018 Fisheries White Paper, the Fisheries Act 2020 and their international legal dimension

Abstract

The 2018 Fisheries White Paper and the Fisheries Act 2020 were designed to govern United Kingdom (UK) fisheries management in the post-Brexit era irrespective of whether the UK and the European Union (EU) succeeded in settling their differences on fisheries and other matters that for much of 2020 made it uncertain whether the Trade and Cooperation Agreement could be concluded. This article considers several international legal issues raised by the White Paper and Fisheries Act, including the choices made by the UK as to which regional fisheries management organisations to (re)join now that the EU no longer speaks for the UK within them, and the treaty processes for doing so, before moving on to further matters given only sketchy treatment in, or omitted altogether from, those documents, on which a firmer position ought to have been taken. Lastly, a new problem apparent for the first time in the Fisheries Act is discussed: navigational freedom of foreign fishing vessels in the UK's exclusive economic zone, and a missed opportunity to legislate a related evidential presumption that would assist future prosecutions for illegal fishing.