Conference:
Abstract: "Garrett Hardin's famous 1969 article, the 'Tragedy of the Commons,' sought to explain the degradation of resources held in common. The simplicity the model combined with its seeming predictive success quickly made it the prevailing model among academicians, managers, and users alike. In recent years, however, there has been widespread critique of the model and its applications as being historically incorrect and ideologically biased in favor private property. Attempts have accordingly been made to create more accurate models and prescribe modes of resource management based on new understandings.
"This paper examines fisheries in international waters and argues that the four resource management regimes identified by those working in the field of common property, State Property Regimes, Private Property Regimes, Common Property Regimes, and Open Access Regimes, fail to capture the essence of these fisheries. Furthermore, viewing the problem of international fisheries from this perspective tends to bias the consideration of solutions to the very real problems of overfishing in favor of the extension of coastal state authority. This paper further argues that the problems of the fisheries of international waters are not best solved by extending coastal state jurisdiction to these waters and that the attempt to do so raises some very serious questions of international distributive justice. Finally it goes against the current trends to argue that management of these waters can ahd should take place through regional fisheries organizations."