Abstract

Why is the European Union (EU) pursuing a relatively minor issue over the right to catch snow crab in the Barents Sea? The issue has highlighted an underlying disagreement between Norway and the EU over the status of the maritime zones around the archipelago of Svalbard, stemming from the 1920 Spitsbergen Treaty. Is the EU using the snow crab to challenge Norway’s Svalbard regime? The answer is that the EU is a multifaceted animal, where special interests can hijack the machinery and bring issues to the table, given the right circumstances. This article outlines these circumstances, as well as the evolution and the sources of the dispute over the snow crab, as it relates to not only economic interests, but international politics as well as law.

摘要

为何欧洲联盟（EU）在巴伦支海捕雪蟹的权利方面追求一个相对较小的问题？该问题凸显了挪威和欧盟之间在源自1920年《斯匹次卑尔根条约》的斯瓦尔巴群岛上海域的地位上存在根本分歧。欧盟是否在使用雪蟹来挑战挪威的斯瓦尔巴群岛政权？答案是欧盟是一个多面的动物，在适当的情况下，特殊利益可以劫持机器并将问题摆在桌面上。本文概述了这些情况，以及关于雪蟹的争端的演变和根源，因为它不仅与经济利益有关，而且与国际政治以及法律有关。