predominantly through the Agreements that have been concluded under the convention, all of which we will get to know below. This is further underlined by the fact
that a the 12th Conference of the Parties, held in 2017, the parties adopted a
resolution endorsing the new concept of Important Marine Mammal Areas
(IMMA). An IMMA is a concept developed by the IUCN’s Marine Mammal
Protected Areas Task Force and is defined as “discrete portions of habitat, important
to marine mammal species, that have the potential to be delineated and managed for
conservation.”
12 This means that when setting out plans for the conservation and
management of specific areas, special attention is paid to marine mammals in these
areas. While the Task Force addresses national governments, this consideration for
marine mammals is also to be undertaken by intergovernmental organisations,
conservation groups and the public. By adopting this resolution, the CMS parties
have therefore demonstrated that marine mammal protection is to occur independently from their listing on the Appendices and rather as a normative standard in
conservation.
4.2.3 The Law of the Sea
The vastness of the oceans has since time immemorial triggered human imagination.
The seemingly endless horizons and the equally seemingly endless resources have
made humankind use the oceans from the coastal waters to the high seas. Quite
naturally, conflicts on resource use and the right to access to resources has
accompanied this use. A branch of international law, the law of the sea, is a remedy
against these conflicts and is a means to govern the global commons. The law of the
sea is therefore not a phenomenon of the twentieth century but has been
accompanying the development of international law in general for several hundred
years. Although Hugo Grotius (1583—1645) is generally considered the father of
the modern version of international law, also other scholars and thinkers of the
fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have markedly shaped modern international law by drawing on a mixture of reason, custom and scripture. But while
these were elementary in shaping international law, it was after all Hugo Grotius
whose work Mare Liberum from the year 1609 established customs and practices
that are still relevant under the modern law of the sea. Most notably, the freedom of
the seas, which Grotius established to substantiate a counter-claim to the Portuguese
who aimed to maintain trade monopoly in the Far East, is still a guiding principle of
the law of the sea today.
Starting in the seventeenth century, European governments started to keep
records of diplomatic exchanges, thereby establishing precedents and a record of
customs. However, only in 1873 when the International Law Association was
established, the first attempts to codify the international law of the sea, up till then
a fragmented imbroglio of scholarly perception, were undertaken. But only in the
12 Marine Mammal Protected Areas Task Force (Undated).
64
4 The Global Framework for the Environment and Marine Mammals
that a the 12th Conference of the Parties, held in 2017, the parties adopted a
resolution endorsing the new concept of Important Marine Mammal Areas
(IMMA). An IMMA is a concept developed by the IUCN’s Marine Mammal
Protected Areas Task Force and is defined as “discrete portions of habitat, important
to marine mammal species, that have the potential to be delineated and managed for
conservation.”
12 This means that when setting out plans for the conservation and
management of specific areas, special attention is paid to marine mammals in these
areas. While the Task Force addresses national governments, this consideration for
marine mammals is also to be undertaken by intergovernmental organisations,
conservation groups and the public. By adopting this resolution, the CMS parties
have therefore demonstrated that marine mammal protection is to occur independently from their listing on the Appendices and rather as a normative standard in
conservation.
4.2.3 The Law of the Sea
The vastness of the oceans has since time immemorial triggered human imagination.
The seemingly endless horizons and the equally seemingly endless resources have
made humankind use the oceans from the coastal waters to the high seas. Quite
naturally, conflicts on resource use and the right to access to resources has
accompanied this use. A branch of international law, the law of the sea, is a remedy
against these conflicts and is a means to govern the global commons. The law of the
sea is therefore not a phenomenon of the twentieth century but has been
accompanying the development of international law in general for several hundred
years. Although Hugo Grotius (1583—1645) is generally considered the father of
the modern version of international law, also other scholars and thinkers of the
fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have markedly shaped modern international law by drawing on a mixture of reason, custom and scripture. But while
these were elementary in shaping international law, it was after all Hugo Grotius
whose work Mare Liberum from the year 1609 established customs and practices
that are still relevant under the modern law of the sea. Most notably, the freedom of
the seas, which Grotius established to substantiate a counter-claim to the Portuguese
who aimed to maintain trade monopoly in the Far East, is still a guiding principle of
the law of the sea today.
Starting in the seventeenth century, European governments started to keep
records of diplomatic exchanges, thereby establishing precedents and a record of
customs. However, only in 1873 when the International Law Association was
established, the first attempts to codify the international law of the sea, up till then
a fragmented imbroglio of scholarly perception, were undertaken. But only in the
12 Marine Mammal Protected Areas Task Force (Undated).
64
4 The Global Framework for the Environment and Marine Mammals