Right to seize vessel a matter of debate

Canadian Press

    OTTAWA--Canada is "stepping ahead" of international law by arresting a Spanish fishing
  trawler in international waters off Newfoundland, experts agree.  Whether it can legally 
  do so is another matter.
    "International law has to catch up with our actions," said Clyde Sanger, communications
  director at the North-South Institute, an Ottawa-based think-tank.
    "This has been done by other countries--actions have been taken and codefied later on.
    But Armand De Mestral, an international law professor at McGill University in Montreal,
  says the high-seas arrest of the Spanish trawler Estai is a clear violation of 
  international law further compromised by Canada's conservation record.
    "Who are we to tell anybody to behave?" he said.  "We've committed as many crimes 
  against the fish as any Spaniard ever did.
    "Canada is basically making law by breaking it.  To do that, you've got to have very
  clean hands.  It's harder to convince the world of your bona fides if you're already as
  guilty as anybody else."
    Fisheries Minister Brian Tobin has cited the Coastal Fisheries Protection Act to back 
  the arrest outside Canada's traditional jurisdiction.
    The year-old law has a clause allowing Canada to use its muscle beyond 200 nautical 
  miles when it feels conservation of stocks is at stake.
    Canada is not the only country to enact such legislation.  It is based on a part of 
  the International Lw of the Sea convention, which says distant-water fishing fleets like
  Spain's must cooperate with coastal states in conserving and managing stocks that migrate
  in and out of territorial waters.
    Some Latin American countries have declared similar laws and Great Britain has actually
  extended its jurisdiction to include parts of its continental shelf outside 200 nautical
  miles.
    "I think that Canada has a very good position," said Evelyne Meltzer, a marine law 
  consultant in Halifax.
    While international law does not provide for arrest and seizure in the high seas, she
  said, Canada could claim a "defence of necessity" on grounds that the fish stock is 
  threatened by Spain's refusal to accept international quotas.

(from the March 15, 1995 Vancouver Sun)