Cross-border Transfers Hazardous Wastes And Their Disposal Research Of Legal Control

Ever since the late1970s, some developed countries has transferred wastes to other countries (in particular developing countries) in a legitimate or illegitimate manner. Going to late1980s, this trend has become more and more obvious that many developing countries have been used as "pollution harbor" by developed countries taking advantage of the wide gap of environmental standards. In the late1990s, we have seen a growing amount of hazardous waste be transferred to Asian countries. According to the statistics released by18European ports, around47%wastes have been illegally flowing into developing countries. The most recent10years have been experiencing a rapid growth in such amount and reportedly in2007, this figure has reached1.91billion tons.Meanwhile, the rising of economic power of China also comes with ever increasingly concerned environmental issues. On the one hand, China exports a large number of commodities while big volumes of wastes are retained and "world factory" is therefore becoming the "world dump". On the other, China has also become a primary target where hazardous wastes are headed. As a result of long-term efforts at international layer, a multi-perspective legal regime has been formulated, which focuses on Basel Convention and also includes other international or regional treaties, bilateral agreements and domestic legislations. Considering the wide gap of economic and technological level between developed countries and developing countries and different interest demands thereof, there are various deficiencies in the law making and enforcement lying behind the current legal regime. Therefore, the international society is suggested to strengthen international cooperation, coordinate various interests and improve domestic legislations to jointly deal with the cross-border transfer of hazardous wastes to pursue the globally sustainable development.The entire article consists of four chapters, the introduction, and the conclusion. There are around46,000words.The introduction part gives a whole picture of current conditions of cross-border transfer of hazardous waste and deduces the necessity of legal control over such activities.Chapter One-Characteristics and nature of cross-border transfer of hazardous wastes. This chapter firstly introduces the definition of hazardous waste, the current situation and trend; secondly deduces the inevitability of legal control over such activities and necessity of such control; and finally, gives an outline of the regulatory regime from both international and domestic perspectives.Chapter Two-Outline of Rules of Basel Convention. This chapter gives an overall analysis of Basel Convention in terms of juridical theories, background, basic principles, primary mechanisms, implications and validity.Chapter Three-Liabilities and Enforcement of Basel Convention. On the one hand, this chapter focuses on the latest development of Basel liability protocol; and on the other, briefly reviews10conferences of parties and typical domestic laws to represent enforcement situations of Basel Convention.Chapter Four-China’s regulatory regime for cross-border transfer of hazardous wastes. This article sets foot in our own circumstances and attempt to summarize the pros and cons of the current regulatory regime. Finally, this chapter will provide several suggestions from legislative and enforcement perspectives.