The Privatization of the Oceans - Tapa dura

Sinopsis

Rich with detail and provocatively argued, this study of the development of propertyrights in the world's fisheries tells the story of one industry's evolution and provides a usefulillustration of the forces that shape economic institutions. The emergence of exclusive individualrights of access in the fishing industry began after the revolution in the international law of thesea that took place in the 1970s, when the offshore area controlled by a nation for fish and otherresources expanded from 3 miles to 200 miles. Rögnvaldur Hannesson compares the subsequentdevelopment of private property rights in the fisheries to the historic enclosures and clearances ofcommon land in England and Scotland and finds many parallels, including bitter fights over accessrights and the impossibility of accommodating all those who want to stake a claim. Overall benefitto society in the form of increased efficiency, he points out, does not mean that all benefitequally. After tracing the development of the law of the sea since the sixteenth century, Hannessonconsiders what form property rights in fisheries might take and examines the forces behind theestablishment of exclusive use rights to fish. He argues that one form of exclusive use rights,individual transferable quotas (ITQs), best promotes efficiency in the use of fish resources. Hepresents case studies of ITQ development, ranging from successful establishment in Canada and NewZealand to failures in Chile and Norway to experiments with ITQs in Iceland and the United States.The development of economic institutions, he concludes, is an evolutionary process subject tocontradictory influences.

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