influenced its current state, how whales are legally treated, and how the ICRW is
implemented. Seals have first and foremost been considered in the context of the
EU’s ban on trade in seal products and within the World Trade Organization’s
(WTO) dispute settlement procedure.
1 Polar bears, by and large, are not quite as
prominent in international legal scholarship. While there are notable scholars such as
Professor Nigel Bankes at the University of Calgary who has looked at legal
implications of co-management and trade law, the legal framework for polar bears
is not quite as prominent in the international discourse as one might assume. Of
course, although polar bears do appear in the contexts of international environmental
law, climate change law and Arctic law, they are often part of a larger narrative but
not necessarily an exclusive focal point therein.
To those unfamiliar with legal research, you might be unaware of the fact that
legal scholars often go beyond the study of clauses, paragraphs and articles—
meaning, they also take other issues into account than the actual legal text. Particularly in the twentieth century the scholarship of socio-legal research has evolved
which includes social legal studies, anthropological legal studies or legal anthropology. In other words, scholars have started to look at the social life of law(s) and what
role societies, people and peoples play in it. This book is no exception and makes the
‘social legal life’ of marine mammals better comprehensible. While social and
cultural issues, paired with some rudimentary information on certain species are
indeed part of many studies, in this book I intend to go further and thus provide a
greater background. Of course it is up to you, the reader, to determine whether I have
succeeded in doing so.
1.4
The Basics of International Environmental Law
Before we delve into the international marine mammal law itself, I consider it useful
to write a few words about the nature of public international law and its subfield,
international environmental law.
First of all, the term public international law refers to the law that has been agreed
upon between nation states. That means that nation states are the subjects of public
international law: they make the decisions, they are the ones responsible for compliance and implementation. This stands in contrast to private international law, which
concerns the rights an obligations of citizens in different countries. Since this is not
relevant for our purposes, when I refer to ‘international law’, I refer to public
international law, the law of states.
Generally speaking, international law is guided by the principle of consensus,
meaning that every internationally agreed legal text is the outcome of long
negotiations in which each word is carefully considered so that every single state,
which participates in the negotiations is content. Of course, there are different ways
to steer negotiations and the final outcome, but for our purposes this should be
1 Sellheim (2018).
1.4 The Basics of International Environmental Law
5
implemented. Seals have first and foremost been considered in the context of the
EU’s ban on trade in seal products and within the World Trade Organization’s
(WTO) dispute settlement procedure.
1 Polar bears, by and large, are not quite as
prominent in international legal scholarship. While there are notable scholars such as
Professor Nigel Bankes at the University of Calgary who has looked at legal
implications of co-management and trade law, the legal framework for polar bears
is not quite as prominent in the international discourse as one might assume. Of
course, although polar bears do appear in the contexts of international environmental
law, climate change law and Arctic law, they are often part of a larger narrative but
not necessarily an exclusive focal point therein.
To those unfamiliar with legal research, you might be unaware of the fact that
legal scholars often go beyond the study of clauses, paragraphs and articles—
meaning, they also take other issues into account than the actual legal text. Particularly in the twentieth century the scholarship of socio-legal research has evolved
which includes social legal studies, anthropological legal studies or legal anthropology. In other words, scholars have started to look at the social life of law(s) and what
role societies, people and peoples play in it. This book is no exception and makes the
‘social legal life’ of marine mammals better comprehensible. While social and
cultural issues, paired with some rudimentary information on certain species are
indeed part of many studies, in this book I intend to go further and thus provide a
greater background. Of course it is up to you, the reader, to determine whether I have
succeeded in doing so.
1.4
The Basics of International Environmental Law
Before we delve into the international marine mammal law itself, I consider it useful
to write a few words about the nature of public international law and its subfield,
international environmental law.
First of all, the term public international law refers to the law that has been agreed
upon between nation states. That means that nation states are the subjects of public
international law: they make the decisions, they are the ones responsible for compliance and implementation. This stands in contrast to private international law, which
concerns the rights an obligations of citizens in different countries. Since this is not
relevant for our purposes, when I refer to ‘international law’, I refer to public
international law, the law of states.
Generally speaking, international law is guided by the principle of consensus,
meaning that every internationally agreed legal text is the outcome of long
negotiations in which each word is carefully considered so that every single state,
which participates in the negotiations is content. Of course, there are different ways
to steer negotiations and the final outcome, but for our purposes this should be
1 Sellheim (2018).
1.4 The Basics of International Environmental Law
5