Study On High Seas Marine Protected Areas And Its Impact On The High Seas Legal System

With the improvement of human activities and the expansion of scope of human activities on the high seas, the situation of environment and resources on the high seas has changed largely. Due to the lack of proper protection of environment and resources on the high seas while human develop and utilize the resources on the high seas, the sustainable development of the high seas biodiversity currently faces severe challenges. In response to the plight of the environment and resources on the high seas, the international community has launched a wide-ranging discussion which makes the issues of high seas marine protected areas come into people’s visual threshold. High seas marine protected areas which is separated from the high seas for specific purposes is implemented of special protection measures. Is located in the areas beyond national jurisdiction, high seas marine protected areas have caused widespread controversy in the international community because some areas of the high seas are separated from the high seas and managed by some international organizations or countries is in conflict with the traditional order of the high seas.China is not only a big country of ocean but also has important influence in world affairs. With a growing issue over environmental protection and resource conservation on the high seas, it’s unavoidable that China is not involved in high seas marine protected areas affairs. Practices of high seas marine protected areas is in conflict with the traditional order of the high seas, previous study on high seas marine protected areas lacks those from the international law perspective. This article studies how practices of high seas marine protected areas affects high seas legal system from the perspective of international law and predicts the future direction of the high seas marine protected areas legal system.Freedom of the open sea is established since international law arose and high seas marine protected areas appear recently. There is no legal framework for high seas marine protected areas in international law system at the present time. We can find some legal basis in the existing documents of international law. High seas marine protected areas came into view in the context of the protection of biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction. There have been an impressive number of global and regional international conventions or other documents of international law on the protection of biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction. For example, United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea and Convention on Biological Diversity are the representative of global international conventions; The Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic and Barcelona Convention are the representative of regional international conventions. These legal terms in the documents of international law above-mentioned are not the direct legal basis for high seas marine protected areas, but they are instructive and meaningful to the practices of high seas marine protected areas.This article gives an explanation of freedom of the open sea which is the core principle of high seas legal system. We can know how practices of high seas marine protected areas affects high seas legal system by comparing specific measures taken in high seas marine protected areas and the details of freedom of the open sea. The differences between the two are analyzed and we find that practices of high seas marine protected areas obviously breaks through the freedom of navigation, freedom of fishing and freedom of scientific research of high seas legal system, what is more, maybe freedom of overflight, freedom to lay submarine cables and pipelinest and freedom to construct artificial islands and other installations permitted under international law will be limited in some cases. But other than that, practices of high seas marine protected areas is also in conflict with jurisdiction on the high seas stipulated in United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, which brings about a series of problems needed to solve.This article predicts the future direction of the legal system of high seas marine protected areas according to the positive and negative influence of high seas marine protected areas effects on the-different-camp countries, the development of the principles and values of modern maritime law in the field of the protection of environment and resources on the high seas and the trend to strengthen the management of high seas and other several factors. The study finds that practices of high seas marine protected areas is conducive to maintain maritime interests for Britain, France, Australia and some other countries. In the meantime, these countries make the sufficient investment in high seas environmental protection cause and apply the advanced environment protection technology, meanwhile the consciousness of environmental protection of the people in these countries is commonly high. It is speculated that these countries will take an even more involved in practices of high seas marine protected areas and further promote the development of the legal system of high seas marine protected areas in the level of regional international law in the period ahead. In consideration of the differences in specific circumstances of each marine protected area, the regional legal system of high seas marine protected areas will be of diversified characteristics in details. In the level of global international law, those in the developing world which less economically and technologically advanced are more likely to have an evasive attitude toward high seas marine protected areas based on their economic power and national interest. The international com munity cannot reach a consensus on reforming the global legal system of high seas marine protected areas in a short span of time, but the possibility of a global legal system of high seas marine protected areas cannot be ruled out in the future. China needs to enhance high seas marine protected areas to the level of national ocean security strategy and attach great importance to the potential benefits that high seas marine protected areas bring to us. In another aspect, we should prepare for the challenges which come along with the high seas marine protected areas.