https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/1899 Thu, 15 Oct 2026 14:53:52 GMT 2026-10-15T14:53:52Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149751 Title: Paying due regard : balancing fisheries conservation and international development Abstract: This dissertation examines the historical trajectory of the relationship between fisheries and international development in the fisheries-related resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly from 1992 to 2025. It starts from the observation that international fisheries governance repeatedly recognises the special requirements of developing States, while the meaning of those requirements remains dispersed across treaty law, soft law, UNGA resolutions, FAO instruments, WTO rules and RFMO practice. The dissertation applies the Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse (SKAD) to reconstruct how development is made meaningful, which actors are classified as requiring differentiated treatment, and which solutions become institutionally legitimate. The UNGA fisheries resolutions form the longitudinal coded corpus. Annex 3 situates Development within the wider fisheries discourse, while Annex 4 reconstructs the internal hierarchy of development-related code groups. Annexes 6 and 7 connect this hierarchy to related legal instruments and selected RFMO provisions, including WCPFC, IOTC and ICCAT materials. The analysis shows that development is stable and prominent in the UNGA corpus, but that its meanings are not equally weighted. The strongest development code groups are Technical and Scientific Capacity and Institutional and Regulatory Capacity. Development is therefore most consistently translated into data production, scientific research, stock assessment, monitoring, control and surveillance, compliance, port State implementation, RFMO participation, technology transfer and capacity-building. Social and distributive meanings, including food security, small-scale fisheries, gender, Indigenous Peoples, vulnerability, market access, productive sovereignty and disproportionate burden, become increasingly visible, especially in the later period. However, they are often incorporated through an implementation-centred structure. The dissertation argues that due regard and the special requirements of developing States have acquired clearer institutional form where they align with the functional needs of the fisheries regime, but remain less settled where they require allocation, burden-sharing, correction of historical advantage or stronger recognition of community authority. Description: M.A. Ocean Gov.(Melit.) Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/149751 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/145789 Title: Turning climate law into action Abstract: Climate change is a highly controversial matter. Navigating the complexities of how to effectively address it is equally difficult. Pacific communities are the first to face the brunt of the climate crisis. They are critically under-resourced to meet the adaptation demands of a changing climate. Promised funds remain inaccessible. For several villages, the battle has already been lost as their ancestral lands submerged to the rising seas. Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/145789 2026-04-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/145104 Title: Risks to our maritime rights Abstract: The Conscience episode is of grave concern in relation to maritime security and Malta’s coastal maritime interests, and it merits reflection. Under international law, coastal or island states are in a privileged position as they are entitled to a range of rights in the waters adjacent to their coast. Many are familiar with the 12 nautical mile territorial sea. Beyond this is the less known contiguous zone. The Conscience episode does not seem to give rise to issues relating to Malta’s enforcement powers in the area. More importantly are Malta’s potential rights resulting from its entitlement to an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) located adjacent to the territorial sea. Malta has been over the last years carefully preparing to exploit the rights associated with this maritime area. [excerpt] Thu, 01 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/145104 2025-05-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/144639 Title: Protect the night sky Abstract: The night sky should be recognised as a cultural, scientific and natural heritage which should be protected and conserved for current and future generations. For a long time, the stars served humanity well: a calendar and the first GPS to navigate the ocean. They also inspired storytelling of gods and heroes. Jupiter and Mars for example, gods for the Roman state until they were replaced by Christianity and Perseus and Orion, heroes in Greek mythology. The stars inspired astronomers like Copernicus and Galileo who revolutionised our thinking by displacing earth as being at the centre of the universe and Giordano who extended our understanding of the universe by proposing that the stars were distant suns. In Malta, celestial objects are referred to in some proverbs, words of wisdom based on experience passed on to us by our forefathers, such as: for weather purposes, “il-kwiekeb tegħmeż għandna r-riħ”, when the stars flicker expect the weather to become windy or stormy; in agriculture, “iż-żrigħ u t-tilqim fil-qamar qadim”, farmers should sow seeds and graft trees when there is a waning moon. Sun, 01 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/144639 2026-02-01T00:00:00Z