Against the tide: law, illegality and the everyday in Corrubedo

Abstract ‘Corrubedo’ is one of many stories Ben Judah tells in This is Europe: The Way We Live Now . It follows Graña, a fisherman from the titular Galician town who, faced with the erosion of his community, is forced to answer what Martha Nussbaum terms a ‘tragic question’ and joins the crew of Kunlun , a vessel sailing to Antarctica to poach Patagonian toothfish. Given the ubiquity of European law, in this article we interrogate its role in shaping the choices available to him and his everyday. We critically examine the Common Fisheries Policy and the IUU Regulation, highlighting their disconnect from the complex social and ecological contexts they seek to regulate, as well as the ensuing forms of alienation. These, we argue, hinting at the principle of subsidiarity, could be overcome through a reflexive law and policy that attends to the voices and lived experiences of those it most directly affects. We thereby hope to contribute to a collective inquiry into the law of the everyday in Europe, revealing the everyday as the site where the costs of governance accumulate and where ‘tragic questions’ are lived rather than resolved.