Conference reports/Rook reviews

son of UK and Norwegian regulation of these conflicts reveals that Nor- way’s laws offer better protection to fishermen, though belated, piecemeal and pragmatic. Churchill proposed more comprehensive marine manage- ment and property rights in fish as means of affording better legal protec- tion for fishermen. Commenting on this, and noting that Norway subsi- dizes its fishing industry generally, A. Underdal (Institut for Statsvitenskap, Oslo) highlighted the ‘ocean planning dilemma’ namely that planning cannot take place until oil drilling has started but if this leads to discovery of oil, it then becomes politically impossible to stop exploitation. He suggested that domestic fishermen’s success in mini- mizing the oil industry’s adverse im- pacts on fishing would also ensure the best protection of foreign fishermen.

The final paper, on pollution and fisheries in the North Sea, given by Dr Patricia Birnie (Lecturer, London School of Economics) drew attention

to the special ‘semi-enclosed’ situation in the North Sea, which is bordered exclusively by industrialized states and heavily used by ships, and oil installa- tions, for dumping and other waste discharges. The 1984 Bremen Confer- ence on the Protection of the North Sea Marine Environment concluded that it was not seriously affected by pollution, although some coastal areas were. She discussed the evolution of definitions of pollution in various con- ventions affecting the North Sea to- wards a more ecological approach and examined existing measures for pollu- tion prevention. She asked whether the plethora of organizations and com- missions that now exists necessitates establishment of an overviewing body, but noted a lack of enthusiasm for adding to existing bodies. She con- cluded by citing the recent view of a leading UK scientist, Professor R.B. Clarke, that no one has ever been able to detect any serious impact on fish stocks from the enormous flow of

Book reviews The Strait of Dover

THE STRAIT OF DOVER Volume 8 International Straits of the World

by Luc Cuyvers

Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht, 150 pp, f 3 1.95

None of the other ‘International Straits of the World’ so far dealt with in this useful series is as densely used or, for the Western World, as history- laden, as the Dover Strait.

The series’ running definition of ‘strait’ is usually generous: No 1, Northeast Arctic Passage (1978) in- cludes the whole sea route from the Norwegian Sea in the West to the Bering Strait 160” longitude to the East, and No 7, The Northwest Pas- sage: Arctic Straits (1984) covers all routes between the Labrador Sea and Prudoe Bay, 100” to the West.

No 8, The Strait of Dover for the most part concentrates on a relatively tiny area of sea, the Strait itself being defined by the International Hydrog- raphic Bureau as reaching from the Greenwich Meridian to 2”30E, and from 50”N to 51”30N - the Thames Estuary in the North, Dunkerque in the East, almost Dieppe in the South and just beyond Beachy Head in the West. Dr Cuyvers stretches these overly restrictive limits and does dis- cuss the English Channel and parts of the North Sea as well.

He starts his short book with a look at the history of Britain’s moat: the invasions across it, the development of trade, the wars and naval rivalries. (The feudally derived ‘rights’ and ‘duties’ of Kings of England in the Narrow Seas is dealt with in a later chapter.) This section ends with an account, by 1986 outdated, of US/SU and NATO/Warsaw Pact naval rela-

effluents reaching the North Sea, the health of its fish stocks being com- pletely dominated by the activities of the fishing industry itself; thus a re- duction in pollution would have no perceptible effect on fisheries. Birnie asked, therefore, whether the com- plex of measures developed were legal hammers developed to crack eco-nuts.

The Workshop concluded with the adoption of a resolution underlining the need for higher education and research in ocean-related matters established by the Workshop. The Council of Europe, in cooperation with European academic institutions, should continue to promote work- shops of this type to discuss the management of ocean resources.

Patricia Birnie London School of Economics

and Political Science London, UK

tions on the Northern Flank. There follow equally brief chapters on ‘The physical setting’ and on ‘The natural resources of the region’. The latter provides statistics and so on of the fisheries of the whole of the North Sea, without specifically mentioning fisheries in the Dover Strait and the Southern North Sea. There is a brief passage on the Common Fisheries Policy and one sentence on sand and gravel extraction. There is a decidedly more on the exploitation of Norwe- gian offshore oil than is warranted in a study of the Dover Strait.

Another very brief chapter examin- ing the ‘Legal regime of the Strait of Dover’ appears to leave in the air the question of ‘transit passage’ (in the UNCLOS sense) through a state’s ‘territorial sea’ as opposed to through its exclusive economic zone (p 51).

The rest of the book deals with shipping matters: ‘Navigation in the

152 MARINE POLICY April 1987

Strait’, ‘Vessel pollution’ and ‘Port state control’. It ends with a chapter entitled ‘A pioneer region of maritime development’. This second half of the book is altogether more substantial than the first and this is where Dr Cuyvers’ interest evidently lies. His account of the achievement of the traffic separation schemes is well done, and so is his analysis of the contribution of sub-standard ships - and sub-standard crews - to collisions, strandings and pollution. He is surely right to judge port state jurisdiction as a most valuable tool in reducing their numbers.

But even here Dr Cuyvers’ interest is somewhat haphazard: oil pollution - both bulk oil and operational oil pollu- tion - he considers in some detail, but other hazardous substances, bulk or packaged, he does not, although, as ACOPS and others have shown, there have been several accidents in these seas, with very nasty packaged cargoes lost overboard and washed ashore. The main risks from the uranium hexafluoride in the Mont Louis sink- ing - which Dr Cuyvers mentions - were chemical, not ‘nuclear’; and the nightmare of traffic managers is not the cross-channel ferry ploughing into

the oil tanker in the Dover Strait, but the ferry ploughing into the LNG or LPG carrier.

In short, this is not as good a book as one might expect, given the quality of others in the series. There is too much left out: nothing on research, nothing on the sufficiency or other- wise of hydrographic surveys in the area, almost nothing on policing at sea, nothing on cables or pipelines, nothing on the ‘Channel fixed link’, nothing on land-based pollution or dumping. Captions to the figures are sometimes absent, sometimes merely confusing. There are miswordings: ‘shoaler’ for ‘shallow’, ‘rotary’ for ‘roundabout’, ‘Oxford’ for ‘Orford’, ‘Coloctronis’ and ‘Coloctronics’ for ‘Colocotronis’, ‘Department of Trans- portation’ for Department of Trans- port’.

All of which is a pity. A second edition, appropriately more compre- hensive in scope and more carefully edited, should be put in hand. The Dover Strait deserves no less.

Elizabeth Young 100 Bayswater Road

London, UK

Oil pollution from ships

OIL POLLUTION FROM SHIPS: In- ternational, United Kingdom and Un- ited States Law and Practice, 2 ed

by David W. Abecassis and Richard L. Jarashow

Stevens, London, 1985, 619 pp, f 75.00

This important new text, addressing a very crucial and complex regulatory area, is most timely and welcome. The principal author and editor, Dr Abe- cassis, established his expertise in this field in the 1978 first version of this book, The Law and Practice Relating to Oil Pollution from Ships. The ear- lier book was really the first substan- tive legal work on the subject. This new edition not only builds on the

earlier version but greatly expands and strengthens the base of knowledge of the literature on the subject.

In fact, as Dr Abecassis notes in the preface, this is basically a new book. It incorporates international and US law in addition to the basic UK regulatory system, which was already so useful in the first edition. As already indicated, Dr Abecassis has a dual role as prin- cipal author and editor as he had considerable help in compiling this volume. His co-author, Richard L. Jarashow, is partner in one of the leading New York admiralty law firms. However, other parts of the book were written by Robert M. Jarvis, an associate in Jarashow’s firm; Malcolm Forster, the Legal Counsel of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Re-

Book reviews

sources (IUCN); Dr Victor Sebeck, the Secretary of the Advisory Com- mittee on Pollution of the Sea (ACOPS); and by Professors R.P. Grime and D. Jackson of the Institute of Maritime Law, University of South- ampton. This is formidable expertise and readers, be they law practitioners, judges, arbitrators, shipowners, gov- ernment officials, mariners or stu- dents, will not be disappointed.

The tone of the book is already set in the short introductory part which provides a rapid overview of the sub- ject in terms of the magnitude of the interests involved in the pollution field, presents the problems of oper- ational pollution, and attempts a look into the future.

Legal analysis

Part II contains an excellent analysis of the international law in the area and provides both a practical as well as a legal analysis of developments, rang- ing from the specific conventions, through the questions of jurisdiction and enforcement, to pollution re- sponse and regional cooperation. Another section provides an up-to- date overview of the law of salvage and general average related to oil pollution and a final section provides the best analysis of the complex area of liability and compensation available in the literature today.

Part III provides a very helpful examination of ‘Selected Issues in United Kingdom Law’, which contains not only a very good overview of UK law but also chapters on prevention, control and clean-up, principles on civil liability and on jurisdiction. Part IV covers generally the same area, but for the USA, and provides a clear and concise overview of the complexities of the US pollution regulatory system.

There is little to criticize in this excellent book. Perhaps it is easier to criticize what is not in the book than what it contains. That approach simp- ly expresses a reviewer’s opinions. For example, it would have been most helpful if the book had not concen- trated solely on oil pollution from ships, which is now recognized to be less than 5% of the pollution problem. Non-oil pollution, which can be at

MARINE POLICY April 1987 153