Book reviews Easing burden of law of the sea researcher INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS AND THE LAW OF THE SEA Vol5 1989 and Vol6 1990

edited by A.H.A Soons and B. Kwiat- kowska

Graham and Trotman/Martinus NV- hoff, London, Dordrecht, Boston, 1991 and 1992, Dfl395 per vol

Readers of this journal will certainly be familiar with the first four volumes of this Documentary Yearbook pub- lished between 1986 and 1990 and covering documents issued during the calendar years 198.5 to 1988. They will doubtless share the reviewer’s indebt- edness to Professors Soons and Kwiat- kowska and their team at the Nether-

lands Institute for the Law of the Sea for further easing the burdens of the researcher in the law of the sea by publishing two further volumes of the Yearbook. Vol 5, published in 1991, covers documents issued in 1989 and Vol 6, published in 1992, covers the calendar year 1990.

It is a regrettable fact of life that it is commercially impossible to publish all of the documents on law of the sea which continue to pour from the UN family of organizations, quite apart from the publications of other regional bodies. It follows that the editors have once again been obliged to omit many documents altogether and to include only parts of others. Whether this policy of partial reproduction of a document is wise is open to question.

Studv of Barents Sea MARINE MANAGEMENT IN DISPUTED AREAS The Case of the Barents Sea

by Robin Churchill and Geir Ulfstein

Ocean Management and Policy Series, Rout/edge, London and New York, 1992

The Barents Sea is a fascinating area for a study in regional marine resource management. Although there are only two riparian States, the fact that Nor- way and Russia have been members of opposing military blocs for many years has inevitably complicated the man- agement of the Barents Sea fisheries and the development of the oil and gas resources of the area. The strategic sensitivity of the area is of course reflected in the unique legal regime created for Svalbard (Spitsbergen) by

the Svalbard Treaty of 1920, which recognized Norwegian sovereignty over the archipelago, but limited its exercise by establishing for the 40-odd States parties to it a regime of equality of treatment in the exploitation of resources. This in turn has compli- cated the negotiation of maritime boundaries between the two States.

In preparing this study, the authors have concentrated on the legal analy- sis of marine resource management issues but their inquiry is invariably well informed by a thorough know- ledge of the operations of the fishing and oil and gas industries. There are four main chapters dealing respective- ly with the Svalbard Treaty regime; boundary delimitation; fisheries man- agement; and offshore fisheries activi- ties. In a concluding chapter the au- thors sum up their conclusions and offer policy recommendations.

No scholar will be happy with access to only part of a document. However, at least the hand wielding the editorial red pen is skilled and experienced and the reader is further assisted by lists of documents not reproduced and addresses for further enquiries. These volumes do not pretend to offer a comprehensive service. When sup- plemented by other documentary sources such as the Law of the Sea Bulletin and International Legal Mate- rials, however, they do make an indis- pensable contribution to any law of the sea library. The editors and pub- lishers are clearly making valiant efforts to ensure that each annual volume appears as soon as possible after the calendar year which it covers. Given the dynamic pace of develop- ments in the law of the sea, any furth- er reduction which can be achieved in this time-lag will make this publication even more valuable.

E. D. Brown Centre for Marine Law and Policy

University of Wales, UK

To tackle such complex problems in a mere 1.53 pages is an ambitious undertaking and, inevitably, the au- thors have had to be somewhat super- ficial in their treatment of some of the issues. This is particularly noticeable in Chapter 3 which attempts both to provide an outline of the international law of maritime boundary delimitation and a case study of its application in the Barents Sea. The international lawyer will understand it; others may struggle. However, overall, this book offers a very useful introduction to the problem of the Barents Sea and, in a full apparatus of footnotes and spe- cialized bibliography, guides the read- er to an extensive literature for further reading.

E.D. Brown Centre for Marine Law and Policy

University of Wales, UK

MARINE POLICY January 1993 67