The International Cooperation For Protection Of Marine Environment

In the practice of the protection of the marine environment, the international societyhas gradually reached a consensus that the protection of marine environment shall becarried out in the form of international cooperation of all countries in the world. Thetheoretical basis of the cooperation is also an important theory problem. After readingthe literature on the international cooperation for protection of marine environment,we can find the fact that most scholars just take the cooperation as a consensus in thepractice and show their agreement, only a few scholars work at expounding andproving the cause and the necessity of the cooperation. These demonstrations can beclassified into three kinds: the first is taking theories of other subjects to prove thenecessity of the cooperation, the second is proving the particularity of the marineenvironment calls for cooperation, and the last is to prove that the internationalism ofthe marine environment affairs needs cooperation. These literatures are useful, butthey are not profound enough.This thesis divides the marine affairs into "public marine affairs" and "commonmarine affairs". The nature of public marine affairs decides the necessity and inevitab-ility of the cooperation. This thesis analyses the protection of marine environmentfrom both theoretical and practical aspects, and expounds and proves that the coopera-tion for protection of marine environment is necessary and consequent by classifyingthe marine environment protection into public marine affairs.The marine law was closely related to the marine territorial demarcation when it wasborn. The marine law was an international law, whose substance is demarcating theocean. After a long time of hard work, until "the United Nations Convention on theLaw of the Sea" was passed in1982, the marine law finally made significant progressthat its content extended to marine environment protection and marine scientific research, and so on. These clauses, which are not related to marine territorialdemarcation, have very obvious differences with the clauses that are about demarcat-ing the ocean in the affairs they regulated. These clauses can be divided into"provisions about pubic marine affairs" and "provisions about common marineaffairs". The classification is based on the basic characteristics of ocean that the sea isfluid. The division standards are the location of the marine affair, the subject who hasjurisdiction and the subject who enjoys the rights and assumes the obligations.The sea is fluid. This character of the ocean determines that the ocean is widelycorrelated. In both the theoretical aspect and the practical aspect, the internationalcommunity segments the ocean into two parts; one is "the sea under national jurisdict-ion", which includes the high seas, the region and so on; another is "the sea outsidethe national jurisdiction", which includes the territorial sea, the exclusive economiczone, the continental shelf, etc. So the marine affairs can be classified into "the publicmarine affairs" and "the common marine affairs". All countries have the same rightsin "the sea outside the national jurisdiction", and assume the same obligations at thesame time. It’s the public marine affairs to the countries which have sighed at "theUnited Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea" and all the countries in the worldthat are using and managing the sea outside the national jurisdiction.Although "the sea under national jurisdiction" has been segmented into different partswhich are under the control of different countries, the ocean exists as a whole one. Sothe water exchange and other interflow or exchange between these different parts,these parts and "the sea outside the national jurisdiction" has been going on. In thissense, these parts have the same character. So the management of the countries inthese parts should have the same character, and they are the common marine affairs ofthese countries.The public character of the public marine affairs determines that it is impossible for aperson or one country or an organization to protect the marine environmentindependently. The character of the public marine affairs determines that it is anecessary and the only choice to cooperate in the marine environment protection. Thisthesis proves the protection of marine environment is a kind of public marine affairsfrom both theoretical and practical aspects. At the practical aspects, it takes the UnitedNations Convention on the Law of the Sea as an example, proves that the protection for the marine environment is a kind of the public marine affairs by analyzing theclauses. And come to the conclusion, the countries should cooperate to protect themarine environment.In order to get a good result of the international cooperation for the protection ofmarine environment, all countries have to insist on several basic principles, such asthe principle of sustainable development, the principle of national sovereignty, theprinciple of sharing and co-administration, the principle of share the responsibilitylegitimately, the principle of settle the claim duly and the principle of take preventionas the main means. The order should be followed that all countries should try to bringthe bilateral cooperation into force at the first phase, and try to carry out the regionalcooperation after the bilateral cooperation having received good results; when boththe bilateral cooperation and the regional cooperation have been implementedsuccessfully；they should try to put the global cooperation into effect. At the sametime, all countries should promote the international legislation of the protection ofmarine environment, and seek the pluralistic consensus in the protection ofinternational marine environment, with the principle of sustainable development asthe foundation.