Issues And Legal Responses Of Ship's Sulphur Oxides Emission Control

In recent years,the problem of marine air pollution from ships has become one of the most important marine atmospheric environmental issues,which is generally concerned all over the world.Since that the atmospheric environment is complex and fragile,actively responding to ship's sulphur oxides emission and containing their impact on the atmospheric environment is one of the important approaches of the international community to improve the marine atmospheric environment.Ship's sulphur oxides emission control,also known as ship's sulphur limit,refers to the strict regulations of sulphur oxides emission from ships in navigation and ships that are docked but have not turned off their engines.International Maritime Organization(IMO)formulated and adopted 'International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships'(MARPOL Convention)Annex VI-'Regulations for Preventing Air Pollution by Ships'(Annex VI).Annex VI provides the legal basis for the international community to carry out ship's sulphur oxides emission control activities in the form of international conventions.In addition to the Introduction and the Conclusion,the main part of this article includes four chapters.In these four chapters,the legal problems and improved measures for ship's sulphur oxides emission control are discussed and analyzed.In the first chapter,the international regulations and existing legal issues of ship's sulphur oxides emission control are discussed.First,the regulations of United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and MARPOL Convention concerning ship's sulphur oxides emission control are discussed.Then,the development trend of ship's sulphur oxides emssion control at the current stage is summarized.The current legal issues of ship's sulphur oxides emission control by international community is given,which includes issues on the exercising of national jurisdiction for ship's sulphur oxides emission control,issues concerning the fulfillment of state obligations and issues on Chinese government regulatory agencies and shipping companies dealing with problems in the process of ship's sulphur limit compliance.In the second chapter,the issues and improved measures of the exercise of the national jurisdiction in ship's sulphur oxides emission control are discussed.First,the flag state's exercise of jurisdiction in ship's sulphur oxides emission control is discussed.Under the circumstance of flag of convenience,the exercise of the flag state's legislative jurisdiction and enforcement jurisdiction is insufficient It is advocated that the ship's sulphur limit obligation of actual controller under the flag of convenience should be clearly defined.Then,.the issues and improved measures of the port state to exercise the jurisdiction in ship's sulphur oxides emission control are discussed.The Port State Control(PSC)is insufficient for the enforcement jurisdiction of the port state,thus a PSC on ship's sulphur limit agreement of inspection information sharing and mutual recognition is proposed to be established.Finally,the coastal state's exercise of the jurisdiction in ship's sulphur oxides emission control is discussed.The application of the innocent passage right in the exercise of.the coastal state's jurisdiction in ship's sulphur oxides emission control is analyzed.In the third chapter,the issues and improved measures for the fulfillment of the national obligations to ship's sulphur oxides emission control are discussed.First,the source,purpose,and basic content of the national obligations to ship's sulphur oxides emission control are clarified.According to the national obligations classification theory,the national obligations to ship's sulphur oxides emission control include respect obligations,protection obligations and fulfillment obligations.Then,the deficiencies of the flag state,coastal state and port state obligations are discussed.According to protection obligations,inadequate performance of obligations to the handling of problems in the Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems(EGCS)and solutions of improper detention of ships are discussed.According to fulfillment obligations,the main issue is inadequate in fulfilling obligations to technical assistance for ship's sulphur oxides emission control.Finally,improved measures for the aforementioned issues are proposed.The problems in the EGCS can be handled by legislation.The time point for the detention review panel procedure under the Memorandum of Understanding should be brought forward to the time point of the detention,and a defect review mechanism for sulphur limit under the IMO framework is supposed to be established.Furthermore,the related concepts and improved measures of technical assistance for ship's sulphur oxides emission control should be defined in MARPOL Convention Annex VI.In the fourth chapter,the improved measures of Chinese government regulatory agencies and shipping companies to deal with ship's sulphur oxides emission control are discussed.First,the improved measures of the basis for government supervision and law enforcement of ship's sulphur oxides emission should be promoted by Chinese government regulatory agencies.The 'Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Atmospheric Pollution'('Law of the Prevention and Control of Atmospheric Pollution')and the national standards related to ship's sulphur oxides emission control should be perfected.The legal basis of administrative measures of ship detention should be clarified.Furthermore,the legal system of combined prevention and control of ship's sulphur oxides emission should be improved.Secondly,company system documents and crew performance should be improved in a timely manner.The provisions of 'Regulations of the People's Republic of China on International Ocean Shipping'('Regulations of the International Ocean Shipping')should be strictly observed by liner ship companies when balancing the cost of ship's sulphur limit.At the same time,shipping companies should actively use a variety of legal remedies to solve the problem of inappropriate detention of ships caused by ship's sulphur limit.