Scientific Whaling in International Law Limitation and Development
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Abstract
The objective of this paper is to study problems that may arise from the ambiguity of Scientific Whaling under international law. There is still some ambiguity around the meaning of Scientific Whaling while considering the relevant provisions of the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling and the interpretation and application of the Convention by the International Court of Justice (“ICJ”) in the case of Whaling in the Antarctic (Australia v Japan; New Zealand intervening). In this regard, the author is of the view that the rules on this matter are still unclear. Likely, States Parties to the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling may claim that they hunt whales on the pretext of whaling for scientific research, despite the real intent being to hunt whales for commercial whaling. The author argues that such problems may be solved by defining Scientific Whaling in soft law to clarify the concept.
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References
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