Implementing and Enforcing European Fisheries Law

Within the European Union, overfishing, overcapacity and non-compliance with the system of catch quotas are threatening the very existence of some fisheries resources. In dealing with these problems, the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) has developed into one of the most regulated areas of the European Union. Yet, in order to provide for the necessary implementation and enforcement frameworks, the European Union strongly relies on the Member States: a reliance on 15 different legal systems with different regulatory capacities, different legal traditions and different enforcement systems of criminal law, administrative law, private law or disciplinary law. Astrid Berg focuses on the legal and practical problems of the implementation and enforcement of the EU's catch quotas in a shared legal order. She examines in detail how effective enforcement can be achieved in a process of European integration. Attention is given to the trend towards sectoralization whereby management and enforcement responsibilities are shared between the central government and organisations representing fishermen. The work reveals the shifting distribution of responsibilities between the Community and the national institutions and actors involved and shows many of the possibilities for, and the limits of, regulatory enforcement in a setting of European integration.