Whaling expert to consider court case

Whaling expert to consider court case
Craig Skehan
January 5, 2008

A WORLD expert on the Law of the Sea and the International Court of Justice, the Cambridge law faculty chair James Crawford, has been drafted by the Federal Government to tackle Japanese whale hunting.

The Rudd Government is also seeking the views of its own lawyers, but it is expected that Professor Crawford would argue Australia's case if, as now seems likely, legal action proceeds.

Professor Crawford represented Australia in 1999 in a joint action with New Zealand against Japan over its huge so-called experimental catch of southern bluefin tuna in a case with parallels to the "scientific" whaling program Canberra brands a sham.

Taking the dispute before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea was a bold move, and Australia and New Zealand won the first round, but it was reversed on a jurisdictional technicality.

Professor Crawford is understood to have been asked to consider prospects for success if the dispute over whaling was taken to that tribunal as well as initiating action before the International Court of Justice.