1st Edition

Marine Pollution, Shipping Waste and International Law

By Gabriela Argüello Copyright 2020
    282 Pages
    by Routledge

    282 Pages
    by Routledge

    Waste management poses increasing challenges to both the protection of the environment and to human health. To face these challenges, this book claims that environmental law needs to shift attention from media-specific pollution regimes to integrative life-cycle approaches of waste management i.e., from the prevention of waste generation to the actual handling of wastes. Furthermore, the cooperation of States and the establishment of coordinated activities is essential because states can no longer have separate standards for wastes posing transboundary risks and for ‘purely domestic’ wastes.

    Drawing upon both International and EU law, the book provides a detailed analysis of the regimes set up to deal with the transboundary movement of wastes and ship-source pollution, so as to elucidate the obligations and legal principles governing such regimes. It concludes that treaty obligations concerning transboundary movements of wastes are inapplicable to ship wastes while on board ships and on land. However, despite the limitations of the transboundary movement of wastes regime, the principle of Environmentally Sound Management (ESM) embodied in this regime has gradually transformed into a legal principle. ESM works to address the legal gaps in the regulation of wastes, and consequently, it provides the desired coherence to the legal system since it acts as a bridge between several regulatory and sectoral levels. Furthermore, ESM offers a new light with which to understand and interpret existing obligations, and it provides a renewed impetus to regimes that directly and indirectly govern wastes. This impetus translates into greater coordination and the establishment of cross-sectional policies.

    By offering alternative ways to solve problems linked to the management of ship wastes in the sea-land interface, this book will appeal to anyone with an interest in International Environmental Law.

    TABLE OF CONTENTS

    Abbreviations

    List of figures and tables

    Part I: Preliminaries

    Chapter 1: Introduction

    Background

    A life-cycle approach to waste management

    The relevance of international law in the regulation of wastes

    ESM and sustainable development

    Theoretical framework

    Chapter 2: Environmentally Sound Management of Wastes (ESM)

    ESM: its roles

    Legal status of ESM: from policy objective and treaty obligation to customary law

    Sovereignty and ESM

    Concluding remarks: ESM and permanent sovereignty over natural

    resources

    3. Wastes

    A re-examination of the legal concept of waste

    Ship wastes

    Wastes subject to transboundary movements of wastes

    Transboundary movement of wastes and ship wastes: an analysis of Article 195 of the LOSC

    Concluding remarks

    Part II: Regulation of transboundary movements of wastes and ship

    wastes

    Chapter 4: Transboundary movements of wastes

    From transboundary pollution to pollution transfer

    The Basel Convention

    The OECD legal framework of transboundary movements of wastes

    EU law and shipments of wastes

    Concluding remarks

    Chapter 5: Ship-source Pollution

    Marine pollution

    An overview on ship-source marine pollution

    MARPOL

    EU and ship wastes

    Concluding remarks

    Part III: The ESM of wastes

    Chapter 6: The sea/land interface waste management dilemma

    Genesis of the controversy at the international level

    Blending operations on board ships: the initial controversy

    The management of ship wastes on land: the current controversy

    The EU and the management of ship wastes in their sea/land interface

    Chapter 7: ESM and the transboundary movement of waste regime

    The growing importance of ESM within the Basel regime

    Legal nature of the ESM obligation

    ESM: meaning and substantive content

    ESM at the OECD level

    ESM at the EU level

    Concluding Remarks

    Chapter 8: The ESM of ship wastes: the sea/land interface

    The ESM of ship wastes at the international level

    The ESM of ship wastes at the EU level

    Forthcoming regulation on port reception facilities

    PART IV: Conclusions

    Chapter 9: The management of ship wastes: the sea-land interface

    Conflicts of law

    Chapter 10: International Law and (ship) waste management

    The integrative function of ESM: possibilities and limitations

    Final reflection

    Appendix I: Management of cargo residues (MARPOL, Annex II)

    in the Baltic Sea area

    Appendix II: Survey results concerning the collection of cargo

    residues (MARPOL, Annex II) in the Baltic Sea area

    References

    International treaties

    European Union Law

    Table of cases

    Bibliography

    International documentation

    European Union documentation

    National Documentation

    Miscellaneous

    Biography

    Gabriela Argüello received her PhD from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden