Enforcement measures against pollution of the sea

Abstract

According to some data, pollution from shipping amounts to lO-20% of the total pollutants in the marine environment.’ However, sea-going vessels, in contrast to others, are the most obvious source of pollution, and therefore in recent times special attention has been devoted to drafting and improving international legal measures against pollution from ships. In the period preceding UNCLOS III a significant number of international universal and regional conventions regulating various aspects of the prevention of pollution from ships were adopted. At UNCLOS III these issues had a central place on the agenda. And it should be noted that a characteristic feature of the process of creating norms of the law of the sea in the domain of protecting and preserving the marine environment is the gradual expansion of the measures to enforce the respective basic norms contained therein. The universal international conventions in force which directly regulate pollution of the sea from ships (the 1954 International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil, with amendments of 1962 and 1969; the 1972 International Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter; and the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships of 1973/78) in one way or another contain measures ensuring compliance with and grant specified powers regarding their enforcement not only to the flag state but also to the coastal state, and in certain instances to the port state. The legal regulation of the prevention of pollution from ships involves deciding a complex of crucial issues for international shipping. They are linked with demarcating the competence of the flag state and coastal state to issue appropriate laws and regulations, and primarily to take measures to ensure compliance both by their own ships and by foreign vessels. A complex machinery which has made material changes in the law of the sea as traditionally conceived has emerged as a result of the enforcement of norms against pollution of the sea from ships. For a long time a customary rule of international law operated according to which a ship outside the internal or territorial waters of a foreign state was under the exclusive jurisdiction of the flag state if it violated norms of international law.2 The principle of exclusive