OceanLaw On-Line Paper
No. 6, November 2001
The
submerged entry into force of the United Nations Fish Stocks
Agreement
Andrew Serdy
Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade,
Canberra, Australia
New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Wellington,
New Zealand
Abstract
For most of the second half of
2001, by the United Nations Secretariat's "official" tally there were 29
ratifications and accessions of the UN Fish Stocks Agreement, one short of the
number required under Article 40(1) of the Agreement to bring it into force.
However, there had been two ratifications withdrawn and a third not counted.
Reviewing the facts in light of the Secretariat's published treaty policy, this
article concludes that the better view is that by May 2001, at the latest, the
Agreement had received sufficient ratifications and accessions to be considered
in force.
A later version of this article was
published in
24 Ocean Development and International Law p. 29 (2003)
