(2011) JLP 64: 121-148
Courtenay E. Parlee and Melanie G. Wiber
Abstract
This paper uses a recent lobster traceability project in the Canadian Maritimes to examine the emerging governance institutions in our global food systems. Given the central importance of lobster to family-based, independent fishing enterprises, this lobster traceability project was a unique opportunity to investigate the people, organizations and governance institutions that are impacting lobster fisheries enterprises and management. This case study illustrates the many “jurisgenerative institutions” (Anderson 1998) at various scales that are currently involved in governing lobster as it enters our food systems, and also traces some of the impacts of those multiple institutions on each other, and on the fishing enterprise. We conclude that legal pluralism is an important constituent in global food security and food governance, and that this characteristic of our emerging food governance institutions requires more careful study.