INTRODUCTION:

The environmental issues facing individuals and countries throughout the world are ample and complicated. Most countries of the world identify environmental challenges as a combination of social, cultural and economic issues. Environmental maladministration has created severe bequest issues in most countries and for the world at large including the oceans. Evolution of civilization increased the number of floating vessels appearing on national and international waters.  The oceans are now considered as routes facilitating marine trade instead of frightening obstacles.  Nations with sprawling marine coasts and docks are considered to be fortunate as they have easy access to global trade but that’s just one side of the coin, the other stressful side of the coin makes them recipients of marine pollution caused by oceanic traffic. The environmental dilapidation of international waters is a global problem. Overfishing, destruction of marine biodiversity, vessel and land-based pollution, unsustainable and environmentally unfriendly exploitation of mineral resources are the concerns of all humanity. This has given rise to globally consider ways and means to protect the environment including the marine life and in turn, have given rise to various International Environmental Laws. This article aims to discuss the International Environmental Laws relating to Marine Life.

INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS:

There is no prescribed definition or a single law formulated to be called the International Environmental Law. International environmental law is a combination of many bilateral and multilateral international agreements and treaties concerned with protecting the environment. The mid-twentieth saw development of International environmental law as a subset of international law. International environmental law is a resultant of three sources namely, international treaties, customary international law, and judicial decisions of international courts. Customary international law refers to a set of unwritten laws that have arisen from widespread custom and usage among nations. Examples of environmental international customary law include warning a neighbouring nation about a major accident that could affect its environment. Decisions by international courts or arbitrators, such as the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, also shape international environmental law. International treaties are the most recent, and most effective, source of international environmental law.

International Environmental Laws have a soft status, which means, they by themselves are not enforceable but influence the development and implementation of legal provisions in national law.  The soft status of international environmental law is a consequence of apprehensions over sovereignty. Nations are usually hesitant to surrender control over their territory, citizens, and undertakings to peripheral international establishments.

DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS FOR PROTECTING MARINE ENVIRONMENT AND LIFE:

The modification and improvement of the modern law of the sea along with the deteriorating condition of the oceans gave birth to various legal regimes addressing problems of the marine environment like pollution, loss of biodiversity, protection of marine life especially the endangered species, and marine animals. The international law of the sea provides a foundation for ongoing development. The future of marine protection is subject to the capability and readiness of countries to work together to achieve these collective objectives and the ability of individual states to propose and implement their own marine protection laws.[1] Some of the International Environmental dealing with the protection of the marine environment and life can be discussed as below:

Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS)

The original version of SOLAS was adopted in 1914 in response to the Titanic disaster. The parties substantially amended SOLAS in 1929, 1948, 1960, 1974, and 1978. Most relevant to marine pollution issues, SOLAS’s 1978 Protocol was adopted at the International Conference on Tanker Safety and Pollution Prevention in February 1978 and came into force on May 1, 1981. This Protocol requires tankers carrying crude oil and other products to have substantial protection against spills. For example, tankers over 20,000 deadweight tons must have an inert gas system to contain oil.[2]

Convention on Fishing and Conservation of the Living Resources of the High Seas – 1958

High seas have no borders leading to the issues that arise due to overfishing to have no borders as well. Entire world suffers from the unprincipled actions of a single reprobate fishing industry, it became necessary for countries to work together toward a unified front on sustainable fishing. The main aim of the convention was to help create an outline through which international conservation laws can be enforced on the high seas. It achieves this goal by provoking international cooperation toward commonly advantageous conservation goals. It also meant that they are more likely to enjoy the biodiversity protected by this initiative.[3]

The Stockholm Conference – 1972

United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm in 1972 (the Stockholm Conference) is considered as the awakening of environmental awareness in international law. Though there were environmental crises that required legal attention before the Stockholm Conference, there was no comprehensive body of international law addressing them. The Stockholm Conference was organised by the United Nations (U.N.) following mounting apprehensions by the United States and other industrialised and developed countries on issues relating to pollution, population growth, and the exhaustion of natural resources. 114 developed and developing countries attended the Stockholm Conference.

Principles 21 addresses the right of countries to use their own resources along with the responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment and Principle 22 mandates the countries to develop international law calculating the liability and reparation for victims of pollution and other environmental damage. The Stockholm Declaration was mainly known for these two principles. The Stockholm Conference was a noteworthy beginning point, but because of its patronising objectives without further utilitarian accomplishment it remained a wish list.

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) – 1982

One of the most important maritime environmental treaties, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea clarifies the responsibilities and rights of all countries that use the oceans. A set of rules and regulations were formulated to conduct business within the scope of the world’s oceans, the UNCLOS protects the health and resources of the oceans from proliferating overuse. It codifies the national and international water boundaries and the exclusive economic zones of all countries that have marine coasts.

‘States have the obligation to protect and preserve the marine environment’ (Article 192). Countries have the right to use their natural resources but it is their duty to protect and preserve the marine environment. They, individually or jointly, have to take all measures necessary for conservation, using the best practical means available to them. They have to ensure that activities under their jurisdiction or control are conducted with care so as not to cause damage by pollution ‘beyond the areas where they exercise sovereign rights’. They must take measures to protect and preserve ‘rare or fragile ecosystems as well as the habitat of depleted, threatened or endangered species and other forms of marine life’.[4]

Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter – 1972 – London Protocol – 1996 enforced in 2006

The London Convention contributes to the international control and prevention of marine pollution by eliminating the dumping of certain hazardous materials. A special permit is required prior to the dumping of a number of other identified materials and a general permit for other wastes or matter. The London Protocol stresses on the precautionary approach, which requires appropriate preventative measures to be taken when there is reason to believe that wastes or other matter introduced into the marine environment are expected to cause harm even without evidence to prove a causal relation between inputs and their effects.

It works on the principle of “the polluter should pay” and emphasizes that Contracting Parties should ensure that the Protocol should not simply result in pollution being transferred from one part of the environment to another.

The Contracting Parties to the London Convention and Protocol are working towards mitigating the impacts of increasing concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere and ensuring that new technologies that aim to better the climate by reducing the potential to cause harm to the marine environment are effectively utilised.[5]

Conventions for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships:

To ensure that shipping is cleaner and natural, International Maritime Organisation has implemented protocols to discourse the emanation of air pollutants from ships and has implemented mandatory energy-efficiency measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping. These include the landmark International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships of 1973, as modified by a 1978 Protocol (MARPOL) and the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil -1954.

International Code for Ships Operating in Polar Waters – Polar Code

In 2017, the International Code for Ships Operating in Polar Waters (Polar Code) entered into force. The Polar Code covers an entire range of strategy, structure, apparatus, operative, training, examination and liberation and environmental protection matters relevant to ships operating in the unreceptive waters surrounding the two poles. It was an important regulatory development in the field of transport and trade facilitation, alongside a range of regulatory developments relating to maritime and supply chain security and environmental issues.

Other than these conventions and treaties there are many other conventions and treaties signed for conservation of marine biodiversity and marine life between some countries of a particular continent or area or between countries having similar objectives. These conventions and treaties have also played a major role in protecting the marine environment and marine life.

Also one can find many international organisations working towards the protection of marine environment and conservation of marine resources some of which are discussed below.

Organisations dealing in Protection of marine environment and biodiversity

The United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) aims to protect oceans and seas and promote the sustainable use of marine resources. The Regional Seas Conventions and Action Plans is the world’s only legal framework for protecting the marine environment at the provincial level. UNEP also created a programme for the Fortification of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities. It is the only global intergovernmental mechanism directly addressing the link between terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), through its Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, coordinates programmes in marine research, observation systems, hazard mitigation and better managing ocean and coastal areas.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is an important United Nations institution for the development of international maritime law. Its main task is to create a fair and effective, generally accepted and implemented a legal framework for the shipping industry.

CONCLUSION:

The threats to marine biodiversity are many. Only an international law regime that addresses all of those threats — pollution, overfishing and its associated problems, loss of habitat, and invasive species — both individually and collectively can effectively terminate, and hopefully inverse, the increasing marine species disappearances and loss of marine biodiversity. The next decades will be an important time in the evolution of the international law of the sea, but the regional treaties discussed above provide encouragement that the world will gradually comprehensively protect its most hidden, but arguably most important, natural