Fishery and aquaculture sustainability target (economic, social and environmental aims) represents, as noted, a primary goal related to the specific sector and to the environmental management at the international level (FAO), (EU), national and local levels. Specifically, European Community provides a policy of conservation and control of fish stocks, which together with the structural policy, trade policy and the external one, is the overall Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Related to this idea, the most recent addresses of the CFP plan to identify, for the future management arrangements based on systems of fishing rights - rights-based management - RBM – that means formalized systems of allocating individual fishing rights to fishermen, fishing vessels, farms, cooperatives or fishing communities (COM/2007/73). This paper analyses the main theoretical issues related to management systems based on RBM in relation to the current intervention measures provided by the PCP, in light of various national and international experience.
