The Area System; The Responsibilities To Protect The Marine Environment From The Activities Of The Seabed Area

The Area and its Marine Environmental affects are the hottest legal issues which still in the process to establish rules, regulations and the full system, whether for the exploring and exploiting the known resources till now or which not known yet, or that which not explored yet, or the current technology does not help to exploit it, from one side, or protect the marine environment from such activities-from other side-which always needs new regulations and measures to provide the best protection.The rising consumption of minerals and increase in demand for energy sources led many countries to search for new areas to meet these needs, causing the States to rush and intensify their activities in the Area-especially the developed states-in order to explore and exploit its resources, which is an enormous wealth of minerals and unlimited amounts of energy sources especially the oil and gas.The Activities of states in the Area became a source of concern for many International Organizations and States especially the developing ones. For this very reason, after1960serious attempts were made to regulate the use of the Area in order to get benefit from its resources. These attempts ended with adoption of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in1982which tried to address all human activities in the sea as well as the rights and obligations of the states.Thereafter the1994Agreement Implementation on the Part XI of the UNCLOS was adopted.As all of us know, the Area has big economic importance for the international community as a whole, and at the same time activities in this area pose a real and serious threat to the marine environment and living resources that exist in the High Sea and the EEZ.For this reason, the UNCLOS and other related agreements tried as much as possible to establish an integrated system to take fair and equitable advantage from the resources of the Area at the international level without any discrimination between countries and peoples, whereas the states worked through the UNCLOS to surmount, the defects and gaps relating to economic cooperation and protection of developing state’s interests, as compared to UN Charter.The protection of the environment is likewise a vital part of contemporary human rights doctrine; therefore it needs other protection for this right, which is clean and healthy environment, the development of this protection needs adopting more regulations and measures according to the difference of areas which need this protection or according to the difference of gravity level of the activities.The subject of the "marine environment protection" from the risks of the Area Activities is one of hot current issues in the international law, especially that Scope of the activities is exist out of the national jurisdiction, and also the potential environment risks will happened-currently-in areas out of the national jurisdictions because the Activities still far from the coasts about13,000KM. also the principles of the sponsoring states responsibility is more complicated, as well as the complication of the compensation about the marine environmental damages. From other side protect the EEZ from such Activities still not discussed according the location of the activities in the Area. But the time and the increase of number of the contractors in the future will make this sensitive area under potential risks against its marine environment.But before we discuss these issues,we led by the subject itself to other issues such as the development of the Sea and Seabed Area regulations and the responsible organ about manage this scope.As for the introduction:in this part we will talk about the importance of the seas and ocean in general meanings and the development of its regulations which find its sources in the customary law, treaties, and some other regulations as any other branches of international law, through work to establish useful regulations for the proper use whether before1960or after.As for the Chapter I, and the Chapter II, We will try to mention the developments of the regulations of the Area with marine environment which established in the UNCLOS,and its exploration and exploitation systems in the new regulations with the increasing of the marine environment protection understanding under the supervision of the Authority, which is the only organ has the right to give the permissions of the exploration and exploitation of the resources of the Area as well as it has many obligations related to the marine environment, these obligations also facing many challenges,specially about the contractor’s responsibility about the lawful acts which caused the marine environmental damages from the Area’s activities.Through these two chapters we can see how is not easy to manage the using this Area without the global respect to those regulations with International Cooperation in good faith in the context of marine environment protection too. It should be noted that the Area is under the control and supervision of the Authority, which works on behalf of all mankind. It is composed of many organs.The most important of them are the Assembly and the Council.Authority has many functions and obligations seeking to overcome the failures of the United Nations on the economic level as well as the marine environment challenges.Until now, although the Authority by way of the UNCLOS has been successful in organizing the proper use of the Area, and enforcing the basic principles that govern the Area, but it could not prevent the continuation of the conflict between economic interests of the states in the Area justifying the fact that many States have not ratified the Convention and the Agreement until now.As for chapter III, we will discuss the protection of the marine environment from the Activities of the Area under the web of international principles whether the traditional ones such as non abuse of the right; and Good neighbourliness to prevent the Transboundary environmental damages of the Activities Area, or other modern principles such as;the International cooperation to provide best marine environment protection from the activities of the Area; precautionary Approach principle;and the sustainable development for best balancing between the activities in the Area and the marine environment protection from the Area’s activities.While the responsibility of the Authority in the marine environment domain make it obliged to engage in all the possible efforts to prevent, reduce, and protect the marine environment from the potential risks which may arise from the Activities which take place in the Area. Those duties contain the supporting the scientific researches, renew the regulations of explore and exploit the resources of the Area to be suitable to the new environmental impact assessment, also can establish some protected areas around the reserved Areas, as Areas of Particular Environmental Interest (APEI) as it established in the Clarion-Clipper ton Fracture Zone (the Pacific Ocean).As for the Chapter IV, we will discuss the main idea which is the responsibilities and obligations of the sponsoring state about the marine environment from the Activities of the Area. Firstly we will explain how the sponsoring states can fulfil its obligations about the marine environment protection from the risks of Area activities in the context of the international environmental principles, including adopt a Precautionary Approach, supervise the Activities of the sponsored contractor in the Area, while we will discuss the international environmental responsibilities of the states for the wrongful and the lawful acts, and the forms of the compensation which face big problems because the nature of the damage and future environmental effects in the second part.While we will stand on the responsibility of the sponsoring states according article135,192,194and235,UNCLOS,where the sponsoring states are responsible for the fulfilment of their international obligations concerning the preservation of the marine environment, as we will talk about the responsibilities of the sponsoring states under the Advisory opinion of the Seabed Chamber of International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) of1February2011,in the section4.This section will have5parts.In the first part, we will discuss the responsibility of the sponsoring states about the damage which arises from the activities of the sponsored contractor in the Area, where the Chamber ruled that this responsibility arise from the failure of the sponsoring states to comply its obligations with UNCLOS and the implementation agreement of Part XI, not from the failure of the sponsored contractor, this responsibility is totally separated and independent from the failure and responsibility of the sponsored contractor, unlike what is decided in the international law and international customary law, although both forms of liability exist in parallel.While we will talk about the effects of the Seabed Chamber Advisory Opinion, especially about the Casual Link between the failure of the sponsoring state and the damage which caused by the failure of the sponsored contractor, this link cannot be presumed in the second part.Then we will stop on the responsibility of the sponsored contractor about his Area activities caused the environmental damages, and the relationship between this responsibility and the responsibility of sponsoring state about the damages which may arise because the activities of the sponsored contractor in the Area, in the part4and5.In the last part of this section, and this chapter we will talk about the responsibility gaps which arose after the UNCLOS,such as the responsibility about the damages when the sponsoring state is not liable because it has complied with its regulations,while the contractor does not meet his liability or responsibility in full, because the international customary law can not relied upon to provide recourse for purposes of closing such a gap in the liability.As for the Chapter V:we will see that the Convention could not establish an integrated system for the protection of the marine environment of EEZ, in particular, from the activities that take place in the Area. For that I propose to establish and create new area called Protection Area, located between the Continental Shelf and the Area, resultantly, between the EEZ and the High Sea as well and its borders extending from6to24NM, these borders are negotiable. Its role is to protect the environment of the EEZ and its living resources from the serious risks or incidents that may happen because of the activities that take place in the Area. The protection Area should be subject to different system, as we will see below.As well as this Idea is based on many legal basis whether some regulations and principles for example, many international environmental principles, such as the Precautionary Approach principle, sustainable development principle, good neighbourliness principles... and common heritage of mankind and human rights, or some historic issues which prove that this new area is needed.In order to protect the resources of the Area from wastage and to reduce the risks and the conflicts between the countries, it is proposed that new restrictions must. be applied on the freedom of the States and their activities in the Area.Here we should keep in mind that the protection of life, both, the life of human and environment are more important than extraction of minerals and energy resources that may cause big dangers and disasters not known yet.