Professor Antje Wiener (University of Hamburg / IASH-SSPS Visiting Research Fellow):
Contested Norms in Inter-national Encounters: The ‘Turbot War’ as a Prelude to Fairer Fisheries Governance
The talk addresses contested norms in inter-national encounters in the context of the global fisheries governance. It illustrates the way norms work based on the trajectory of the 1995 ‘Turbot War’ as a series of inter-national encounters among diverse sets of Canadian and European stakeholders. By unpacking the contestations and identifying the norms that were at stake, it suggests that what began as a narrative of cross-purposes, holds the potential for fairer fisheries governance based on the ultimately shared concern for the balance between the right to fish (UNCLOS Art. 116) and the sustainability norm. While the path to get there is painful and complex, the article develops a framework to elaborate on procedural details including especially the right for stakeholder access to regular contestation.