The research topic of this PhD-project is the license and enforcements system in the Norwegian fisheries legislation. The main objective is to assess to what extent the regulatory framework and specific rules provides for environmental sustainability and a clear and predictable exercise of authority. Selected areas of the law will be investigated and assessed in a broader societal context. The project will have a mixed methodology that include elements of legal history, doctrinal analysis, regulatory theory, resource management theory and legal sociology and economics. In addition, the project will include international perspectives and a comparative analysis of the regulatory framework in Norway and Canada. The aim of a comparison is to identify similarities and differences that can increase the general knowledge of important domestic law considerations to take in fisheries management processes.