Research On The Legal System For Environmental Protection Of The International Seabed

The short name of the international seabed area is “the Area”. The natural resources of “the Area” refers to the none-living resources. The activities in “the Area” mainly refer to prospecting, exploring and mining. The legal system for international seabed “the Area” is mainly to solve two issues: the first one is the distribution of exclusive interests of natural resources; the second is the realization of common interests in environmental protection. These two issues are inseparable, and the principle of common heritage of mankind to solve the first one has a direct effect on the second.The distribution of exclusive interests of natural resources once made United Nations Convention on the law of sea a gamble between the developed countries and those less developed, and finally it ended with a parallel exploitation system for “the Area”. As western developed countries such as Britain, France, Germany and United States refused to join the convention, it led to some flaw of universality. But not long after that, nearly all those countries gave their compliance to the convention except United States.Under the parallel exploitation system, three “regulations” of the international seabed authority on prospecting and exploration set up clear environmental protection mechanisms. At the same time, in the first case of asking the international tribunal for the law of sea for advisory opinion, it has been made clear that the sponsoring country’s main obligation is to take all necessary and appropriate measures to ensure the contactor to perform his obligations to protect environment under international law, what constitutes the and all necessary and appropriate measures and the obligation remains obscure.In fact, international conventions tackling the adverse effect to environment of all kinds of human activities and those tackling some specific human activity such as conventions tackling the specific activities and the national laws have offered examples for how to the protect the environment of “the Area”. All in all, environmental impact assessment, precautionary principle, best environmental practice, publicity of information and so on should be paid regard to in the law-making process. China should set strict conditions for application enhance administration and supervision, punish those who fails before, during and after the whole process of activities to ensure the contractor to perform his obligations in environmental protection, for the purpose of avoiding the legal risk of the nation.