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International Organizations and the Protection of the Marine Environment

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Abstract

One response to the numerous governance challenges faced with respect to the oceans, a shared space, is the creation of international organizations. Typically comprising of representations from member States and with pre-defined mandates, international organizations strive to resolve specific issues. This chapter will provide a categorical overview of these organizations and examine how they operate in isolation, as well as interact with each other, in striving to protect the marine environment. Given the institutional complexity surrounding the individual regimes that create them, the outcomes arrived at by most international organizations occasionally do not represent the collective interests of all member States. Nevertheless, the existence of a common avenue in which marine environmental problems can be raised and discussed as a whole has indeed resulted in the adoption of notable measures to address those problems. Such outcomes would not have been possible without the mechanics that are peculiar to international organizations. Ultimately, this analysis demonstrates the extent to which international organizations formulate the law of the sea and discern some patterns on how their efforts has advanced the protection of the marine environment in recent years.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Rothwell and Stephens (2016), p. 517; Redgwell (2006), pp. 180–182.

  2. 2.

    Boyle (2007) and Stephens (2009).

  3. 3.

    Art. 136, UNCLOS.

  4. 4.

    Markus and Singh (2016).

  5. 5.

    Art. 145, UNCLOS.

  6. 6.

    Rothwell and Stephens (2016), pp. 20–21.

  7. 7.

    Jaeckel (2017), Lodge (2015a, b), Makgill and Linhares (2016) and Wedding et al. (2013).

  8. 8.

    Franckx (2010).

  9. 9.

    Annex II, Article 2, UNCLOS. See also Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (2018).

  10. 10.

    Jenisch (2010).

  11. 11.

    Tanaka (2015a), p. 34.

  12. 12.

    Rothwell and Stephens (2016), p. 21.

  13. 13.

    Harrison (2015a), pp. 389–390.

  14. 14.

    Churchill and Lowe (1999), p. 22.

  15. 15.

    Boyle and Chinkin (2007), pp. 106–108; Tanaka (2015a), p. 347.

  16. 16.

    See UNGA (2015) Resolution A/RES/70/1.

  17. 17.

    Bodansky (2010).

  18. 18.

    See UNGA (2017) Resolution A/RES/69/292.

  19. 19.

    Barnes (2016).

  20. 20.

    Tanaka (2015a), p. 36.

  21. 21.

    See UNGA (1999) Resolution A/RES/54/33.

  22. 22.

    Tanaka (2015a), p. 36.

  23. 23.

    de La Fayette (2006).

  24. 24.

    Rothwell and Stephens (2016), p. 366.

  25. 25.

    Churchill and Lowe (1999), p. 23.

  26. 26.

    de La Fayette (2001).

  27. 27.

    Karim (2015), p. 34; Tanaka (2015a), p. 35; Kachel (2008), pp. 86–90.

  28. 28.

    Birnie et al. (2009), pp. 76 and 404; IMO (2014), p. 8.

  29. 29.

    VanderZwaag (2015), p. 143.

  30. 30.

    Churchill and Lowe (1999), p. 23.

  31. 31.

    Boyle (2006), p. 50.

  32. 32.

    Tanaka (2015a), p. 36.

  33. 33.

    World Heritage Convention and UNESCO (2018).

  34. 34.

    Harden-Davies (2016), p. 261; Rothwell and Stephens (2016), pp. 573–574.

  35. 35.

    Ivanova (2007).

  36. 36.

    UNEP (2018).

  37. 37.

    Pfeiffer (2006), p. 197.

  38. 38.

    Braethan (1998), p. 29.

  39. 39.

    Willetts (2011), pp. 72–73.

  40. 40.

    See Order 2013/2 dated 24 May 2013, Case No. 21 of ITLOS (Request for an Advisory Opinion Submitted by the Sub-Regional Fisheries Commission).

  41. 41.

    UNEP (2018).

  42. 42.

    Namely, the Convention for the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea against Pollution 1976 (Barcelona Convention), the Regional Convention for Cooperation on the Protection of the Marine Environment from Pollution 1978 (Kuwait Convention), the Convention for Cooperation in the Protection, Management and Development of the Marine and Coastal Environment of the Atlantic Coast of the West, Central and Southern Africa Region 1981 (Abidjan Convention), the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and Coastal Zones of the South-East Pacific 1981 (Lima Convention), the Regional Convention for the Conservation of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden Environment 1982 (Jeddah Convention), the Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean Region 1983 (Cartagena Convention), the Convention of the Protection, Management and Development of the Marine and Coastal Environment of the Eastern African Region 1985, (Nairobi Convention), the Convention for the Protection of the Natural Resources and Environment of the South Pacific Region 1986 (Noumea Convention), the Convention on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution 1992 (Bucharest Convention), and the Convention for Cooperation in the Protection and Sustainable Development of the Marine and Coastal Environment of the North-East Pacific 2002 (Antigua Convention).

  43. 43.

    Such as the East Asian Seas Action Plan (EASAP), Northwest Pacific Action Plan 1994 (NOWPAP), and the South Asian Seas Action Plan 1995 (SASAP).

  44. 44.

    Freestone and Salman (2007), p. 349.

  45. 45.

    Notably, the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea 1992 (Helsinki Convention), the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic 1992 (OSPAR Convention), the Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea 2003 (Tehran Convention), and the Antarctic Treaty System (comprising of the Antarctic Treaty 1959, the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals 1972, the Convention for the Conservation of the Antarctic Marine Living Resources 1980, and the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty 1991).

  46. 46.

    Rayfuse (2015), p. 440.

  47. 47.

    Unterweger (2015).

  48. 48.

    Rayfuse (2015), p. 450.

  49. 49.

    Harrison (2011), p. 233.

  50. 50.

    Harrison (2015b), p. 69; Hulm (1983), p. 4; Haas (1989).

  51. 51.

    Oral (2015), pp. 361–362.

  52. 52.

    Churchill and Lowe (1999), pp. 23–24.

  53. 53.

    Molenaar (2003).

  54. 54.

    Gillespie (2011), p. 446.

  55. 55.

    Palma-Robles (2016), pp. 151–152.

  56. 56.

    Gillespie (2005).

  57. 57.

    Sielen (2009).

  58. 58.

    Boyle (2005).

  59. 59.

    Harrison (2011), pp. 237–242.

  60. 60.

    Bodansky (2010), p. 35.

  61. 61.

    Van Dyke and Broder (2015), pp. 69–71.

  62. 62.

    Boetius and Matthias (2018).

  63. 63.

    International Institute for Sustainable Development (2017).

  64. 64.

    Accordingly, upon greater reflection, the granting of a mineral exploration license in that part of the Area might not be contrary to its status as an EBSA, provided a license for exploitation is not granted over the said area subsequently. Given the status of the area as an EBSA, it seems to be unlikely that the ISA will eventually grant an exploitation license over that area.

  65. 65.

    Gillespie (2002).

  66. 66.

    Williamson et al. (2012), Markus and Ginzky (2011), Scott (2013) and IMO (2019).

  67. 67.

    Wolfrum and Matz (2003), pp. 159–175.

  68. 68.

    Hey (2007), p. 753.

  69. 69.

    de La Fayette (2006), p. 74.

  70. 70.

    Boyle (2006), pp. 61–62.

  71. 71.

    Franckx (1998), p. 322; Redgwell (2007), p. 923.

  72. 72.

    Churchill and Lowe (1999), p. 24.

  73. 73.

    Tanaka (2015b), p. 53.

  74. 74.

    Rothwell (2007), p. 1023.

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  1. Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS), Potsdam, Germany

    Pradeep A. Singh

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  1. Faculty of Law, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Marta Chantal Ribeiro

  2. Faculty of Law, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Fernando Loureiro Bastos

  3. Faculty of Law, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsoe, Norway

    Tore Henriksen

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Singh, P.A. (2020). International Organizations and the Protection of the Marine Environment. In: Ribeiro, M., Loureiro Bastos, F., Henriksen, T. (eds) Global Challenges and the Law of the Sea. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42671-2_3

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