Protecting the Polar Marine Environment: Law and Policy for Pollution Prevention

298 Pages·2000·10.95 MB·English

by  Davor Vidas

Protecting the polar marine environment
How can we best protect the polar marine environment against pollu-
tion?Leading scholars on environmental law, the law of the sea, and
Arctic and Antarctic aVairs examine this important question. To what
extent do existing global instruments of environmental protection apply
to the Arctic Ocean and the Southern Ocean?Can the arrangements
adopted at regional, sub-regional and national levels provide adequate
protection? This book examines and compares various levels of regula-
tion in protecting the marine environment of the Arctic and Antarctic,
with speciWc attention to land-based activities, radioactive waste
dumping, and shipping in ice-covered waters. Recent developments
since the establishment of the Arctic Council in 1996 and the entry into
force of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty
in 1998 are also discussed. This is a volume that will appeal to polar spe-
cialists and to all those interested in environmental law and policy.
davor vidasis Director of the Polar Programme at the Fridtjof Nansen
Institute in Norway, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute. His
recent books include Governing the Antarctic: The EVectiveness and
Legitimacy of the Antarctic Treaty System(with O. S. Stokke, 1996), Arctic
Development and Environmental Challenges(1997), Order for the Oceans
at the Turn of the Century(with W. Østreng, 1999) and Implementing the
Environmental Protection Regime for the Antarctic (2000).

Protecting the polar
marine environment
LAW AND POLICY FOR
POLLUTION PREVENTION
Edited by
DAVOR VIDAS
published bythe press syndicate of the university of cambridge
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom
cambridge university press
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© The Fridtjof Nansen Institute 2000
This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2000
Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge
Typeface Utopia 81⁄2/121⁄2pt System QuarkXPress™ [se]
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data
Protecting the polar marine environment: law and policy for pollution prevention /
edited by Davor Vidas
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0 521 66311 3
1. Marine pollution – Law and legislation – Polar regions. 2. Marine resources
conservation – Law and legislation – Polar regions. I. Vidas, Davor.
K3592.72.P76 2000
344¢.046343¢0911 – dc21 00-023021
ISBN0 521 66311 3hardback
mojoj dragoj livici za peti ro(cid:240)endan,
tata

Contents
List of Wgures xi
List of tables xii
Notes on the contributors xiii
Preface and acknowledgements xv
List of abbreviations xviii
introductory overview
Protecting the polar marine environment:interplay of
regulatoryframeworks 3
Davor Vidas
Areas dealt with in this book 4
The Arctic and Antarctic regions: similarities and contrasts 5
Structure of this book: interplay of regulatory frameworks 13
part i: levels of regulation in the protection of the
polar marine environment
1 Globalism and regionalism in the protection of the marine
environment 19
Alan Boyle
Globalism and regionalism in the law of the sea 20
What is a ‘region’? 26
Advantages and disadvantages of regionalism 30
Conclusions 33
2 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the polar
marineenvironment 34
Budislav Vukas
vii
viii Contents
Applicability of the LOS Convention to the polar oceans 35
Navigation and the protection of the marine environment 38
Enclosed or semi-enclosed seas: Part IX 39
Protection and preservation of the marine environment:
Part XII 42
Part XII and customary international law 45
Part XII and the polar oceans 51
Settlement of disputes: Part XV 53
Final remarks 54
3 Global environmental protection instruments and the polar
marineenvironment 57
Donald R.Rothwell
Marine pollution conventions and the polar oceans 58
International regulation of ship-sourced pollution 59
International regulation of dumping at sea 63
International regulation of land-based pollution 65
International regulation of maritime emergencies 67
Marine environmental protected areas 70
Other global environmental conventions and their impact on
the polar marine environment 73
Interaction between global conventions and regional regimes
for marine environmental protection 75
Conclusions 76
4 The polar marine environment in regional cooperation 78
Davor Vidas
International cooperative processes for polar environmental
protection: the decade of change 79
Approaches to polar marine environmental protection in
regional cooperation 88
Conclusions: a paradox of similarities or a consequence of
diVerences? 101
5 Protection of the Antarctic environment against marine pollution
under the 1991 Protocol 104
Christopher C.Joyner
Marine pollution in the Antarctic 105
Marine pollution law in the 1991 Environmental Protocol 107
The annexes 112
The balance sheet 122
Contents ix
6 Sub-regional cooperation and protection of the Arctic marine
environment:the Barents Sea 124
Olav Schram Stokke
Sub-regional collaboration in the Barents Region: eVectiveness
concerns 125
Threats to the Barents Sea marine environment 130
Managing the marine environment: sub-regional contributions 134
Conclusions: eVectiveness of sub-regional cooperation in the
Barents Sea 146
7 Domestic perspectives and regulations in protecting the polar
marineenvironment:Australia,Canada and the United States 149
Donald R.Rothwell and Christopher C.Joyner
Canada and the Arctic marine environment 150
The United States and the Arctic marine environment 156
Australia and the Antarctic marine environment 161
The United States and the Antarctic marine environment 166
Polar states and marine environmental protection: conclusions 170
part ii: currenttrends and issues in protecting the
polar marine environment
8 Land-based marine pollution and the Arctic:polarities between
principles and practice 175
David VanderZwaag
Crises in Arctic seas 177
Global instruments addressing land-based marine pollution 180
Extra-regional eVorts addressing land-based pollution 184
Regional sea agreements relevant to land-based pollution of
the Arctic 187
Arctic regional initiatives addressing land-based
pollution and activities 189
Challenges and future directions 195
9 Radioactive waste in the Barents and Kara Seas:Russian
implementation of the global dumping regime 200
Olav Schram Stokke
The problem of radioactive waste 201
The global dumping regime 203
Implementing the dumping regime: the Russian case 207
Conclusions 218
x Contents
10 Regulation of navigation and vessel-source pollution in the
NorthernSea Route:Article 234 and state practice 221
R.Douglas Brubaker
The Northern Sea Route: legal controversy 223
Russian regulation: non-compliance with, or interpretation of,
Article 234? 225
Practice of the USA and other states in Russian Arctic waters 239
Conclusions 242
11 The emerging International Polar Navigation Code:bi-polar
relevance? 244
Lawson W.Brigham
Navigating in polar waters 244
Historical perspectives 246
The harmonisation process and developments 248
Key elements of the Polar Code 250
Arctic issues 254
Antarctic issues 256
Assessing the potentials of the Polar Code 259
Conclusions and the future 261
Index of international instruments and national legislation 263
Subject index 268