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Navigating a Sea of Laws: Small-Scale Fishing Communities and Customary Rights in Ghana and South Africa

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The Palgrave Handbook of Blue Heritage

Abstract

After reflecting on the current status of international law and insights from studies on legal pluralism on the recognition of customary law, this chapter explores shared challenges and different approaches to ensuring the recognition of small-scale fishers’ customary rights in Ghana and South Africa. The chapter concludes by drawing on international human rights law and international environmental law to identify procedural approaches to strengthen the protection for fishers’ customary rights as a matter of implementation at the national level.

This paper has been prepared under the One Ocean Hub, a collaborative research for sustainable development project funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) through the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) (Grant Ref: NE/S008950/1). GCRF is a key component in delivering the UK AID strategy and puts UK-led research at the heart of efforts to tackle the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The authors and their affiliations are as follows: Anthea.Christoffels-DuPlessis, Nelson Mandela University, South Africa, Bola Erinosho, University of Cape Coast, Ghana, Laura Major, University of Strathclyde, UK, Elisa Morgera, University of Strathclyde, UK, Jackie Sunde, University of Cape Town, South Africa and Saskia Vermeylen, University of Strathclyde, UK.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Law, Nelson Mandela University, Gqeberha, South Africa

    Anthea Christoffels-DuPlessis

  2. Faculty of Law, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana

    Bola Erinosho

  3. Strathclyde University, Glasgow, Scotland

    Laura Major & Saskia Vermeylen

  4. University of Strathclyde Law School, Glasgow, UK

    Elisa Morgera

  5. University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Jackie Sunde

Authors
  1. Anthea Christoffels-DuPlessis
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  2. Bola Erinosho
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  3. Laura Major
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  4. Elisa Morgera
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  5. Jackie Sunde
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  6. Saskia Vermeylen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anthea Christoffels-DuPlessis .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa

    Rosabelle Boswell

  2. Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany

    David O’Kane

  3. University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji

    Jeremy Hills

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Christoffels-DuPlessis, A., Erinosho, B., Major, L., Morgera, E., Sunde, J., Vermeylen, S. (2022). Navigating a Sea of Laws: Small-Scale Fishing Communities and Customary Rights in Ghana and South Africa. In: Boswell, R., O’Kane, D., Hills, J. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Blue Heritage. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99347-4_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99347-4_18

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