Legislation Research On China’s Coastal Zone Management

Coastal zone is the area that the land and the ocean affect together. Coastal zonenot only has advantages in natural condition, but also is the most developed area.However, with human activities increasing, coastal zone is faced with seriousenvironmental problems. So, it is valuable and feasible to manage the China’s coastalzone by legal means.To study China’s coastal zone management legislation, we should comb thelegislation history of coastal zone management from both home and abroad. It is theprominent coastal zone environment problems that make coastal zone managementbecome the object that the law regulates. Foreign coastal zone management legislationhas a long history and it has developed into three types. China’s coastal zonemanagement legislation starts very late, but develops very fast. Since the nineteeneighties, China has accelerated the legislation pace of coastal zone management.There are some problems in China’s coastal zone management legislation. Firstly,the coastal zone management law system is not perfect and there is not acomprehensive coastal zone management law. Secondly, there is not an unified andreasonable standard to definite coastal zone, which leading to an illogical definition ofcoastal zone. Thirdly, there are some defects in coastal zone management model, suchas the loose management. Fourthly, there are some problems in enforcement system ofcoastal zone, such as the limited law enforcement capacity. Lastly, the coastal zonemanagement planning needs to be improved.A lot of experience of foreign coastal zone management legislation is worth ofreferencing. America, Australia and South Korea have set up perfect legal system ofcoastal zone management; the America National Oceanic and AtmosphericAdministration(NOAA), the French oceanic secretary and the Holland oceanic administration are the special department of coastal zone management; the UnitedStates Coast Guard(USCG) and the Japan coast guard are the only coastallaw-executor; America, Australia and Holland have developed effective coastal zonemanagement planning; and so on.Based on the legislation comparison of domestic and foreign coastal zonemanagement, a lot of useful thinking is provoked. In order to solve the environmentalproblems of coastal zone, China needs to develop a comprehensive coastal zonemanagement act which should be taken in the light of legislation path called “fromlocal government to central government”. With regard to define the coastal zone, openlegislation attitude is appropriate. In the aspects of the management institution andlaw enforcement system, it is conceived to establish the coastal zone managementcommittee and the joint coastal zone law enforcement leadership. Coastal zoneenvironment will benefit from an unified coastal zone management planning.