This case study is about a unique institution called Kadakkody (literally meaning "sea court") prevalent in Kerala, in Malabar coast of India. Its presence as well as the institutional reinvention it has undergone raises interesting questions like 1) how and why this institution has survived? 2) what role does it play in resource management? 3) status and validity of regulations endorsed by the Kadakkody and 4) does it offer any policy insights for resource management in tropical waters? It has been found that its persistence depends on a multiplicity of factors and so defies any bureaucratic duplication in its institutionalisation. The role of the State should be to enable political contexts that nurture the genesis and co-evolution of people's own resource management initiatives and institutions. What is required is the emergence of a new political ethos built on the foundations of ecology and ethics.

Resource conservation, Kadakkody; Kerala, Fisheries science