Chapter 6 An International Legal-Political Framework for Controlling the Oceans 



I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 



The panel has not had sufficient opportunity to 

 study the problems of oceanic pollution. For this 

 reason, it makes no recommendations to the 

 Commission in this area. However, we thought it 

 might advance public discussion of pollution prob- 

 lems if we attempted a tentative evaluation of the 

 existing framework within which these problems 

 are being handled. 



II. OBJECTIVES OF FRAMEWORK 



Oil from ships and radioactive substances (de- 

 posited in the oceans as a result of radioactive 

 waste disposal or the detonation of nuclear mate- 

 rials to test weapons or for other purposes) 

 constitute the two principal sources of significant 

 oceanic pollution which are generally beyond the 

 power of any single nation to control. The danger 

 of pollution from agents other than oil, resulting 

 from accidents to bulk carriers transporting large 

 quantities of toxic or other dangerous chemicals, 

 may increase in the future. 



The framework for controlling oil pollution 

 must assure that all steps technically possible are 

 taken to minimize the discharge of oil from ships 

 that may interfere with uses of the sea other than 

 the transportation of oil. 



The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty' seeks to stop 

 entirely nuclear weapons testing in the oceans. The 

 oceans, however, continue to be a depository for 

 potentially harmful radioactive substances and this 

 use of the seas may increase in the future. The 

 framework for regulating nuclear pollution must 

 assure that any substantial risk of harm to man- 

 kind as a result of this activity will be eliminated, 

 and that this activity does not unreasonably 

 interfere with other uses of the oceans. To these 

 ends, it should specify the conditions under which 



Done at Moscow, Aug. 5, 1963, entered into force 

 for the United States, Oct. 10, 1963, 14 U.S.T. 1313, 

 T.I.A.S. No. 5433, 480 U.N.T.S. 43. Article I of the 

 Treaty obligates the States Parties not to carry out any 

 nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear 

 explosion in the atmosphere or underwater, including 

 territorial waters or high seas. 



radioactive waste disposal in the oceans is or is not 

 permissible. 



Judged by these criteria, the existing frame- 

 work is deficient in important respects. 



III. EXISTING FRAMEWORK 



A. Framework Applicable to Pollution in General 



1. Article 2 of the Convention on the High 

 Seas provides generally that the freedoms of the 

 high seas "shall be exercised by all States with 

 reasonable regard to the interests of other States in 

 their exercise of the freedom of the high seas." In 

 this respect, the Convention codified a general 

 principle of international law, but created no 

 implementing machinery. 



2. Part II of the Convention on the Territorial 

 Sea and the Contiguous Zone authorizes the 

 coastal State, in a zone of the high seas contiguous 

 to its territorial sea, but extending no farther than 

 12 miles from the baselines from which the 

 breadth of the territorial sea is measured, to: 



Prevent infringement of its . . . sanitary regula- 

 tions within its territory or territorial sea 



Punish infringement of the above regulations 

 committed within its territory or territorial sea. 



3. The Secretary General of the United Nations 

 has reported that the "investigation and control of 

 marine pollution ... is a matter on which inter- 

 national action on both regional and global scales 

 is now becoming urgent."^ Many United Nations 

 organizations are concerned with this problem— 

 the Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative 

 Organization (IMCO), World Health Organization 

 (WHO), Food and Agriculture Organization 

 (FAO), Educational, Scientific and Cultural Orga- 

 nization (UNESCO), and the International Atomic 

 Energy Agency (IAEA). The work of these mem- 

 bers of the United Nations family is coordinated 



Report of UN Secretary General, Marine Science and 

 Technology: Survey and Proposals, E/4487, Apr. 24, 

 1968, at 83. 



VIIl-79 



