Abstract
With Japan’s withdrawal from the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW), no member of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) hunts whales commercially except by objection or reservation, thus intensifying the debate over what the IWC should do and what it may do. For decades, some IWC members have questioned the mandate of the IWC to manage small cetaceans, regulate whaling in coastal State exclusive economic zones, and make recommendations concerning entanglement, bycatch, and other threats to whale conservation. An analysis of the ordinary meaning of the ICRW and the practice of the IWC shows that the IWC has broad competence to address a wide range of issues consistent with the ICRW’s objectives to conserve whales and to develop the whaling industry. First, nothing in the ICRW evinces an intent to limit the IWC’s scope to large whales; the IWC has competence to manage all cetaceans. Second, the ICRW’s geographic scope, and thus the IWC’s mandate, clearly extends to “all waters” where whaling occurs, and other treaties do not implicitly or explicitly limit that geographic scope. Third, the IWC’s dual purposes of whale conservation and development of the whaling industry allow the IWC to adopt binding regulations solely for the purpose of conservation, but does not allow the IWC to completely ignore whaling interests. As such, the IWC has competence to establish sanctuaries, regulate whale killing methods, impose reporting requirements concerning entanglement, bycatch, and marine pollution, and mandate DNA sampling and testing for contamination in whale meat. However, it does not have authority to adopt binding regulations, only non-binding recommendations, to prevent entanglement of whales in fishing nets or minimize vessel and other pollution that may affect cetacean health because such action does not fall within the scope of its permissible regulations. Despite these limitations, the IWC has broad competence to address modern conservation threats to cetaceans, including those not directly related to commercial whaling.
Recommended Citation
Chris Wold, 40 YEARS AFTER THE MORATORIUM ON COMMERCIAL WHALING: ASSESSING THE COMPETENCE OF THE INTERNATIONAL WHALING COMMISSION TO CONFRONT CRITICAL THREATS TO CETACEANS, 36 Pace Int'l L. Rev. 271 (2024)DOI: https://doi.org/10.58948/2331-3536.1436
Available at: https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pilr/vol36/iss2/1
