The North Sea legal regime

Abstract

If conflicts of uses in, and further degradation of, the marine environment of the North Sea occur by the year 2000 this will not be for want of a framework for the international legal regime. This now exists at the global, regional and sub-regional level. During the past 20 years, in response to the impetus provided by the United Nations Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment held in 1972, not only have longstanding international bodies such as the IMO (International Maritime Organization), the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development), the Nordic Council, the Council of Europe and the European Community adopted active programmes for protection of the marine environment which had led to the adoption of treaties, regulations, guidelines and codes of practice, but also many new regional commissions and organizations have been established, to develop the measures concerning specific aspects of the required regime. Thus, the Oslo Commission now deals with measures to control and prevent ocean dumping; the Paris Commission with Land-based Sources of Marine Pollution; the Bonn Agreements with Co-operation in dealing with oil and other spillages. Even NATO has established a Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society (CCMS) to promote environmental protection in its area. What is lacking is any one body that takes an overall view of the situation. This paper outlines the regime developed through all these bodies and also examines whether there is a need to develop any new comprehensive body; whether an existing body could be given the lead role, or whether the on-going North Sea Conference, backed by the services of the new Task Force, can fill this role.