International Legal Regulation In Marine Debris Pollution: Achievements, Shortcomings And Trends

The theme of this paper is the International Environmental Governance ofMarine Debris. It can be divided into seven parts:The first chapter is Introduction. It elaborates the background, the theme andthe related concept. Plastic litter has recently moved centre stage as another stressfactor for the marine environment. There is a pressing need for the internationalcommunity to take action for its governance. The International Law and theInternational Governance are two main governance approaches. The author provided asum of contribution on the basis of current studies.The Second chapter offers some essential information of marine debris.Man-made debris in the oceans is now found everywhere, and the amount increasesrapidly. There are two main sources of marine debris, and it can have numerousimpacts on the marine livings and environment. These impacts are both cultural andmulti-sectoral, rooted primarily in poor practices of solid waste management, a lack ofinfrastructure, various human activities, an inadequate understanding on the part ofthe public of the potential consequences of their actions, the lack of adequate legaland enforcement systems and a lack of financial resources. The international law havelitter effect on it and has a long way to walk.The Third chapter comment on the effectives of international law. Ambitiousnorms are more easily achieved in soft law institutions than in legally binding ones,this is not primarily due to a bypass of the domestic ratification stage or low attentionto compliance costs. More important in the processes examined here is the greater flexibility offered by soft law instruments with respect to the states that are included,the sectors of government that participate, or the aspects of a larger problem that aresingled out for norm-building. The potential of soft law to influence the strength ofbinding institutions by putting pressure on laggards is demonstrated in the North Sea.Transformation or incorporation of soft law into hard law will improve theimplementation and effectiveness of international norms. Although most of theevidence presented here confirms the edge that hard law institutions are expected tohave over soft law with respect to implementation, the structures for intrusiveverification and review that provide part of the explanation can also be created for softlaw norms.The Fourth chapter comment on the Eight Princles for the governance ofmarine debris. There is a widely held view that there is a need to formulate acomprehensive set of general principles for the legal regime of maritime areas, andsuch principles are already included in the United Nations Convention on the Law ofthe Sea and other international treaties and instruments.The article draws some conclusion:“Respect for the Law of the Sea and RelatedInstruments” principle should be formulated solely by reference to freedom of thehigh seas;“The Protection and Preservation of the Marine Environment” principle and“International Co-operation” principle should be applicable for more non-state actors;the “Science-Based Approach to Management” principle still remains a question;“The Ecosystem Approach” principle is recognized to be widely used in all the oceans,and it links to the next principle;“The Integrated Approach” should be required tostrengthen cross-sectoral cooperation and address sectoral and cumulative impacts.“Sustainable and Equitable Use” principle is not suitable for widely used in protectionof marine environment.“The Responsibility of States as Stewards of the GlobalMarine Environment” principle might seem to be more specific in content, implying,inter alia, stronger commitment to and basis for joint action.The Fifth chapter focuses the “obligations erga omnes” in international law.The legal protection of international community interests was the result of a gradualII and, at first, almost imperceptible general trend. The protection of communityinterests has already been effected in positive international law, by describing in theperspective proposed here various international legal notions and regimes, such asobligations erga omnes. This is illustrated by certain apparent paradoxes in theregimes of obligations erga omnes, responsibility towards the internationalcommunity as a whole, etc. It is also at the core of increasingly frequent debates ininternational law on possible conflicts and the appropriate balance to be foundbetween community and individual interests. The international norms begin to shiftfrom the “result-based obligation” to “action-based obligation”, even the “preservedobligation”. In that case, the action conducted in nation’s jurisdiction appears to bemore restricted in international law. It also needs the proper liability and enforcementregimes. So there is litter hope to achieve in short time.There is a tendency that more and more nations tends to take the private Reliefmechanism to solve the dispute. A certain conventions have tried to take theinvestigation and supervision to seek relief in order to implement the obligation.More and More norms in international law tend to exert the obligations toindividual. If the nation’s norms conform to the international law, it can be morerestricted on the individual. The individual can contribute to the governance of marinelitter by being responsible for their own behaviorThe Sixth chapter focuses on the compliance theory in dealing with the issues.Noncompliance may take the form of willful, operational or norm generating. Apotential cause of compliance problems is the lack of clarity inherent inaction-oriented regimes. A lack of certainty as to the nature of the problem or theappropriate response may prevent effective action. The third potential complianceproblem is that threats and impacts on the marine environment change. However, theydo not appear to do so here. Instead, they prompt action to improve on all counts. Thiseffect appears to be largely a result of the tacit recognition of the distinction betweenwillful, norm-generating and operational noncompliance by those party to the regimes,with each type of noncompliance generating a different response. Reports can be used as capacity-building mechanisms to address one of the main reasons fornoncompliance.In the second section, the paper points out that he interest in building statecapacity, however, may only inform us about part of the solution for improvingcompliance and effectiveness. If societal capacity remains weak, many internationalefforts to enhance state capacity may flounder. The participation of NGOs in theenvironmental policy-making realm can, moreover, assist states to meet theirinternational environmental commitments, as NGOs can provide information andcarry out research concerning different policy options. They also monitor stateactivity to ensure domestic compliance. Overall, NGOs enhance capacity bytranslating environmental concern into policies.In the Third section, the article discusses that two overarching approaches toenforcement of international commitments by citizen suit are possible. First,environmental agreements could be made to include more specific, self-executingobligations, from the outset. Alternatively, the international agreements couldcontinue to adhere to the model common to the Montreal and Kyoto protocols,whereby states commit to broad quantitative reductions, only now with an additionaltreaty obligation to provide for private enforcement of subsequent implementinglegislation in the domestic legal system. Most important among these is that theunavailability of domestic enforcement of environmental laws through citizen suitswill tend to undermine compliance with international environmental obligations.The Seventh chapter attempts to discuss about the development and evolutionof international environment law and the opportunities and challenges in thedevelopment. Cooperation Issue, for the implementation of Supporter environmentlaws, is the most important challenge of environmental law. The second challenge issupervise and enforcement. Observing principles of Treaties and implementation oftheir obligations is a fundamental obligation of international law. The third challengeis Adjustment and development of commitments. There is a trend that more actorsparticipate in the international governance, and the multi-center powers will beIV established. International Law is the core element in governing the globalenvironmental issues. The International governance calls for an integrated and amulti-level framework. Marine litter is a global problem and mitigation actions shouldbe developed around a global framework, coordinated at the regional level andimplemented at the national level through development and implementation ofnational action plans or strategies that address marine litter.International organization is more influential than the individual nation. It plays aleader in in governing the global environmental issues. UNEP is becoming a moreeffective, efficient and results-focused entity, meeting the expectations ofGovernments and its stakeholders in responding to global environmental challengesand opportunities. It faces the internal challenge of becoming a more effective,efficient and results-focused entity, delivering as “One UNEP”.This section adopted eight elements of good governance as an analyticalframework, namely, the rule of law, participatory, transparency, consensus-baseddecision making, accountability, equity and inclusiveness, responsiveness andcoherence. These elements are partially supported by international treaty practice buthave not yet received universal acceptance. To finance the ambitious activities ahead,the Regional Seas Programmes and member countries must find and develop a solidfoundation of long-term sustainable financing by strengthening domestic commitmentand resources. Just as the Regional Seas Programmes differ in focus and scope,financial options and solutions vary from region to region as member countries havedifferent economic structures and are at varying stages of development.