Several disturbing issues pose a threat to the marine environment and its wellbeing, among them marine environmental pollution and degradation of marine biodiversity. Most troubling is that these issues are overwhelmingly caused by human activities which are sometimes transboundary, and their consequences will become more severe and complicated if not properly curbed. Thus, these activities require comprehensive policies, laws, and principles to manage them effectively. Linked to these solutions is the need for responsibilities, cooperation and commitments at local, national, regional and international levels. Contemporary Marine Environmental Law and Policy presents a thorough appraisal of the main issues, actors and institutions engaged in the legal aspects of marine environmental conservation. With contributions from an international range of authors, the book provides a concise account of the legal and policy framework underlying international marine environmental issues, and of the fundamental concepts and strategies that are important to the protection of the marine environment. Some of the topics explored include: the prevention of marine pollution caused by land based activities, ships, and offshore hydrocarbon and mineral resources exploration; the conservation and management of marine living resources; the marine environment in the polar regions; and the settlement of marine environmental disputes. This book provides a solid foundation for anyone studying International Environmental Law and the Law of the Sea. It will also appeal to anyone seeking to gain a deeper understanding of this hugely important subject.

This textbook provides the reader with a foundation in policy development and analysis and describes how policy, including legal mechanisms, is applied to marine environments around the world. It offers a systematic treatment of all aspects of marine policy, including environmental protection, fisheries, transportation, energy, mining and climate change. It starts with a biophysical overview of the structure and function of the marine environment with a particular emphasis on the challenges and opportunities of managing the marine environment. An overview of the creation and function of international law is then provided with a focus on international marine law. It explores the geographic and jurisdictional dimensions of marine policy, as well the current and anticipated challenges facing marine systems, including climate change-related impacts and resource over-exploitation. The book should appeal to senior undergraduate and graduate students and form a core part of the curriculum for marine affairs, science and policy courses. It will also provide supplementary reading for students taking a course in the law of the oceans, but is not aimed at legal specialists.

This volume deals with institutions, implementation and innovations in the field of international marine environmental law. It discusses some controversial legal aspects of the marine environment in the context of UNCLOS, as a framework for national, regional and global action in the marine sector. The purpose of this work is to faithfully report scientific expertise, legal insight and policy wisdom presented by the speakers and participants at the Conference. The book identifies major aspects of the current situation and possible future developments in a critical way. Among the key issues covered are implementation and enforcement of environmental conventions; the avoidance, prevention and settlement of disputes; and, liability and compensation for environmental damage. Also included are several articles which discuss the role of the main institutions in this field within the UN system. This volume is based on contributions made at the International Conference on Marine Environmental Law (ICMEL), held by the GAUSS Institute in Bremen, Germany. There is a companion website, specially created to work alongside the texts. A selected bibliography, documents, conventions and links connected to the contents of the book are included to provide an updated and comprehensive resource for the reader: www.andreekirchner.de/imel

The oceans cover more than seventy per cent of the surface of the planet and they provide many vital ecosystem services. However, the health of the world's oceans has been deteriorating over the past decades and the protection of the marine environment has emerged as one of the most pressing legal and political challenges for the international community. An effective solution depends upon the cooperation of all states towards achieving agreed objectives. This book provides a critical assessment of the role that international law plays in this process, by explaining and evaluating the various legal instruments that have been negotiated in this area, as well as key trends in global ocean governance. Starting with a detailed analysis of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the book considers the main treaties and other legal texts that seeks to prevent, reduce, and control damage to the marine environment caused by navigation, seabed exploitation, fishing, dumping, and land-based activities, as well as emerging pressures such as ocean noise and climate change. The book demonstrates how international institutions have expanded their mandates to address a broader range of marine environmental issues, beyond basic problems of pollution control to include the conservation of marine biological diversity and an ecosystems approach to regulation. It also discusses the development of diverse regulatory tools to address anthropogenic impacts on the marine environment and the extent to which states have adopted a precautionary approach in different maritime sectors. Whilst many advances have been made in these matters, this book highlights the need for greater coordination between international institutions, as well as the desirability of developing stronger enforcement mechanisms for international environmental rules.

Marine Environmental Governance: From International Law to Local Practice considers the relationship between international environmental law and community-based management of marine areas. Focusing on small island states, in which indigenous populations have to a large extent continued to maintain traditional lifestyles, this book takes up the question of how indigenous customary law and state-based legislation can be reconciled in the implementation of international environmental law. Including a range of case studies, as well as detailed comparative analysis, it pursues an interdisciplinary approach to legal pluralism 'in practice' that will be of considerable interest to environmental lawyers, legal anthropologists, conservation biologists and those working in the area of community-based conservation.

Waste management poses increasing challenges to both the protection of the environment and to human health. To face these challenges, this book claims that environmental law needs to shift attention from media-specific pollution regimes to integrative life-cycle approaches of waste management i.e., from the prevention of waste generation to the actual handling of wastes. Furthermore, the cooperation of States and the establishment of coordinated activities is essential because states can no longer have separate standards for wastes posing transboundary risks and for ‘purely domestic’ wastes. Drawing upon both International and EU law, the book provides a detailed analysis of the regimes set up to deal with the transboundary movement of wastes and ship-source pollution, so as to elucidate the obligations and legal principles governing such regimes. It concludes that treaty obligations concerning transboundary movements of wastes are inapplicable to ship wastes while on board ships and on land. However, despite the limitations of the transboundary movement of wastes regime, the principle of Environmentally Sound Management (ESM) embodied in this regime has gradually transformed into a legal principle. ESM works to address the legal gaps in the regulation of wastes, and consequently, it provides the desired coherence to the legal system since it acts as a bridge between several regulatory and sectoral levels. Furthermore, ESM offers a new light with which to understand and interpret existing obligations, and it provides a renewed impetus to regimes that directly and indirectly govern wastes. This impetus translates into greater coordination and the establishment of cross-sectional policies. By offering alternative ways to solve problems linked to the management of ship wastes in the sea-land interface, this book will appeal to anyone with an interest in International Environmental Law.

A significant contribution to the field, and a welcome addition to the growing literature on international environmental law and an important reference for every scholar, lawyer, and layperson interested in the field.

This timely book examines the reform of maritime law under the influence of environmental principles and the effects of these changes in the legal relationships between maritime stakeholders. Providing an integrated assessment of the use of environmental principles in the governance of shipping and maritime law, it argues that normative barriers supported by short term financial interests, the balance of power between states and the technocratic character of the IMO are delaying necessary changes to support sustainable development and thus endanger the marine environment.

Ocean and coastal law has grown rapidly in the past three decades as a specialty area within natural resources law and environmental law. The protection of oceans has received increased attention in the past decade because of sea-level rise, ocean acidification, the global overfishing crisis, widespread depletion of marine biodiversity such as marine mammals and coral reefs, and marine pollution. Paralleling the growth of ocean and coastal law, climate change regulation has emerged as a focus of international environmental diplomacy, and has gained increased attention in the wake of disturbing and abrupt climate change related impacts throughout the world that have profound implications for ocean and coastal regulation and marine resources. Climate Change Impacts on Ocean and Coastal Law effectively unites these two worlds. It raises important questions about whether and how ocean and coastal law will respond to the regulatory challenges that climate change presents to resources in the oceans and coasts of the U.S. and the world. This comprehensive work assembles the insights of global experts from academia and major NGOs (e.g., Center for International Environmental Law, Ocean Conservancy, and Environmental Law Institute) to address regulatory challenges from the perspectives of U.S. law, foreign domestic law, and international law.

The book examines whether the jurisdiction of coastal States under international law can be extended to include powers of intervention towards vessels posing a significant risk to their coastal and marine environment, but which have not yet been involved in any incident or accident. The books sets out how it is that coastal State jurisdiction can indeed be seen as including powers of intervention towards High Risks Vessels before an incident or accident happens, on the basis of the precautionary principle. The precautionary principle requires taking action when a risk of damage to the environment is suspected, but cannot be confirmed scientifically.The book thus considers the potential opportunities for the coastal state under international law to regulate international shipping where they consider vessels to an unacceptable risk to the environment, in order to prevent or minimise the risk of occurrence of the accident or incident leading to damage. The book acknowledges that this puts into question some very old and established principles of the law of the sea, most importantly the principle of freedom of navigation. But Bénédicte Sage-Fuller contends that this change would itself be a consequence of the evolution, since the end of WWII, of on the one hand international law of the sea itself, and of international environmental law on the other hand.