Effective Dispute Resolution

The document analyzes the existing legal framework provided by UNCLOS and the SSA for resolving fisheries disputes and evaluates lessons from other international bodies like the WTO, ILO, and the Montreal Protocol to suggest a graduated, transparent, and science-based dispute resolution system for the Western and Central Pacific.

• The existing framework for the Draft Pacific Convention is based on the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the 1994 United Nations Agreement on Highly Migratory and Straddling Fish Stocks (SSA), which allow for four binding dispute resolution mechanisms: the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), the International Court of Justice (ICJ), general arbitration, and special arbitration.
• Traditional bilateral adversarial models of dispute resolution are often ill-suited for multilateral treaties where controversies typically concern the functioning of a regime rather than a wrong committed by one party against another.
• Experience with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in fisheries cases suggests it is often too slow, costly, and may fail to reach the merits of a dispute, making it less suitable than specialized forums.

APA

Downes, D., & Penhoet, B. (1999). Effective Dispute Resolution. Center for International Environmental Law. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/effectivedisputeresolution.pdf

Chicago

Downes, David, and Braden Penhoet. Effective Dispute Resolution. Center for International Environmental Law, 1999. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/effectivedisputeresolution.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Downes |first1=David |last2=Penhoet |first2=Braden |title=Effective Dispute Resolution |publisher=Center for International Environmental Law |date=September 1999 |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/effectivedisputeresolution.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{downes1999effective, author = {Downes, David and Penhoet, Braden}, title = {{Effective Dispute Resolution}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {1999}, month = sep, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/effectivedisputeresolution.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }