Hui, Wang --- "Transboundary Vessel-Source Marine Pollution – International Legal Framework and its Application to China" [2008] ELECD 345; in Faure, Michael; Ying, Song (eds), "China and International Environmental Liability" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008)

Book Title: China and International Environmental Liability

Editor(s): Faure, Michael; Ying, Song

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847207524

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: Transboundary Vessel-Source Marine Pollution – International Legal Framework and its Application to China

Author(s): Hui, Wang

Number of pages: 43

Extract:

4. Transboundary vessel-source marine
pollution ­ international legal
framework and its application to
China
Wang Hui

1 INTRODUCTION

Two-thirds of the earth's surface consists of water and the oceans form the
very foundation of life itself. Nowadays, 95 per cent of the world's trade by
weight is carried by sea. In view of the crucial importance of the oceans to
life, the pollution of the marine environment and its effects require serious
attention.
Marine pollution may come from various sources. The major source is
acknowledged to be from land-based sources, such as coastal activities.
Another main source is marine shipping or vessel-related activities, such as
tankers carrying oil or other chemicals by sea and other vessels carrying
hazardous and noxious cargoes. Ocean shipping is nowadays frequently
carried out between different states.1 Consequently, when pollution comes
from shipping-related activities or vessel-related sources, it often occurs
that the pollution incident may be generated from inside one country or on
the high seas where no country may claim jurisdiction, but it can inflict
adverse effects in the territory or jurisdiction of another state.2 Hence,
marine pollution caused by vessel-based activities is often transboundary
in nature. Moreover, the common practice today is that the ship is registered
in one country, while the crew is multinational, the ship is managed by an
operating company registered in another country, and the beneficial owner
is in yet another country.3 When pollution occurs in such a situation, ...