Legal background International law: the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement and Regional Fishery Management Organisations UNCLOS
UNCLOS is the main international agreement governing the World’s oceans and seas. The UK is a party to UNCLOS in its own right. UNCLOS covers a number of significant issues including setting limits for territorial waters and EEZs, navigation, archipelagic status and transit regimes, continental shelf jurisdiction, deep seabed mining, the exploitation regime for fish stocks, protection of the marine environment, scientific research, and settlement of disputes. In relation to fisheries, UNCLOS recognises a coastal State's rights and obligations with respect to fishing in its territorial sea, its EEZ and on the high seas.
	The territorial sea is a zone extending up to 12 nautical miles from a coastal State’s baselines (generally the low-water line along the coast). The coastal State’s sovereignty extends to its territorial sea. The coastal State’s sovereignty over its territorial sea is to be exercised in accordance with its international obligations, including obligations under UNCLOS (for example, to provide innocent passage to boats from third States).
	The EEZ is a zone extending from the outer limit of the coastal State’s territorial sea to up to 200 nautical miles from its baselines or to the median line with another coastal State's EEZ. Within the EEZ, the coastal State enjoys exclusive rights in relation to natural resources and related jurisdictional rights.
	Within the EEZ, the coastal State has "sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing" the fish stocks of the zone (UNCLOS, Article 56(1)). These rights are subject to a number of duties under UNCLOS, including the need to:
	determine the total allowable catch of the living resources in the EEZ – Article 61(1);
	maintain or restore populations of harvested species at levels which can produce the maximum sustainable yield – Article 61(3);
	optimise utilisation of the living resources within its EEZ, without prejudice to Article 61 – Article 62(1);
	determine the coastal State’s own capacity to harvest those living resources – Article 62(2);
	provide other States with access to any surplus if the allowable catch exceeds the coastal State’s own capacity to harvest the living resources – Article 62(2);
	provide due notice of conservation and managements laws and regulations relating to living resources of its EEZ – Article 62(5); and,
	cooperate with other Coastal States upon measures necessary to coordinate and ensure the conservation and development of shared stocks - Article 63.
	Where coastal States allow access for fishing boats from other States to their EEZ, the coastal State can prescribe conditions to govern such fishing. Article 62(4) of UNCLOS provides that these conditions may, for example, require foreign fishers to have licences, to observe the coastal State’s conservation measures, to provide information including catch and effort statistics and vessel position reports, to carry out research programmes, to land part or all of their catches in the coastal State, to carry on-board observers, to train coastal State personnel, and to comply with enforcement procedures.
	The rights and duties of other States in the coastal State’s EEZ are set out in Article 58 of UNCLOS. Other States’ rights include (i) the freedom of navigation, (ii) the freedom of overflight, and (iii) the freedom to lay submarine cables and pipelines. Other States must have due regard to the rights and duties of the coastal State and comply with the laws and regulations adopted by the coastal State adopted in accordance with UNCLOS and other rules of international law.
	Whilst the overwhelming proportion of commercial fishing takes place within 200 miles of land, UNCLOS also contains provisions governing fishing on the high seas (i.e. beyond 200 miles) where many fish stocks spend part or the whole of their life cycle. UNCLOS provides that fishing is, in principle, open to all States on the high seas, subject to a number of general obligations relating to the conservation and management of high seas living resources (set out in Articles 117 to 120). These include the obligation to cooperate to establish RFMOs to this end.
	UNCLOS includes a bespoke dispute settlement mechanism. When a dispute arises, parties to UNCLOS are under a general obligation to settle the dispute by peaceful means (Art 279). Parties must proceed expeditiously to an exchange of views regarding settlement by negotiation or other peaceful means (Art 283). If parties fail to reach a settlement through agreed procedures, one may invite the other to submit to the conciliation procedure laid out in Article 285 and Annex V. There are compulsory dispute resolution mechanisms provided by section 2 of Part XV of UNCLOS, which are engaged where settlement of a dispute is not possible by a means freely chosen by the parties, but there are exceptions to this compulsory procedure for fisheries disputes relating to a coastal State’s sovereign rights relating to the living resources in its EEZ, including its determination of the TAC and harvesting capacity, its allocation of surpluses to other States and its conservation and management laws.