Towards Guidelines for Antarctic Shipping: A Basis for Cooperation between the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties and the IMO

Abstract

In December 1997, a document entitled ‘Development of a Code on Polar Navigation - The International Code of Safety for Ships in Polar Waters (Polar Code)’ was submitted by Canada to the Sub-Committee on Ship Design and Equipment of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).¹ The basic aim of the draft Polar Code, which constituted Annex 1 to the document, was to establish an international framework governing polar shipping. The draft Polar Code was the only bi-polar instrument ever proposed. In particular, it aimed at the harmonisation of different legal regimes by meeting

the need for special measures to protect the safety of life, and to preserve the quality of the environment in the world’s circumpolar seas and oceans. These waters pose a number of unique challenges to shipping, due to their remoteness, extreme climatic conditions and unusual navigation hazards. Hitherto, safety has been managed in a piecemeal manner, with a large number of incompatible national systems of navigational control coupled with equally varied construction, equipment and crewing standards. The Polar Code harmonises all of these to ensure that all future operations in polar waters meet satisfactory and internationally-recognised minimum standards.²

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¹ IMO doc. DE 41/10, 1997. The Polar Code was drafted by an Outside Working Group of technical experts set forth by the IMO and including representatives from a number of administrations, classification societies, operators and experts on polar issues. See an overview and analysis by L.W. Brigham, ‘The Emerging International Polar Navigation Code: Bi-polar Relevance?’, in D. Vidas (ed.), Protecting the Polar Marine Environment: Law and Policy for Pollution Prevention (Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 244-262.

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² IMO doc. DE 41/10, para. 1(2).