131 



It will be important to look in some detail at the background of the la\v-of-the« 

 sea negotiations, their present status, and what they portend for the develop- 

 ment of a regime for the ocean generally and for proteciion of the marine en- 

 vironment in pai'ticular. But there are also other public international forums in 

 which protection of the marine environment is being considered in one way or 

 another: most notably, the Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organiza- 

 tion (IMCO) a United Nations Specialized Agency, and the newly established 

 environment unit — styled the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) — 

 recommended by the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment in 1972 

 and created by the last United Nations General Assembly. I shall want also to 

 comment briefly on the role of these two organizations. 



The most active forum in {producing regulatory regimes aimed at preventing 

 marine pollution has been the Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Orga- 

 nization (IMCO), a specialized agency of the United Nations headquartered in 

 London. IMCO was not established initially with an environmental mandate in 

 mind, being designed as its name implies as a forum for consultation among 

 major shipping interests. It has, nevertheless, produced a set of treaties (the 

 latest of which is at present in an advanced draft) which, when all in force, 

 will deal with all forms of ix>llution introduced into the ocean from vessels, ex- 

 cept one. The one exception is ocean dumping — ^the introduction of materials 

 transix)rted from land sijecifically for the purpose of waste disposal at sea — 

 which is the subject of another treaty now concluded but not yet in force, gen- 

 erated by the p'rei>a rations for the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environ- 

 ment. 



It should be noted that this whole body of law is "regulation" only in a fairly 

 crude sense — namely, regulation by treaty, which is cumbersome to bring into 

 effect, and equally cumbersome to alter in response to perceived changes in need. 

 By and large, these treaties regulate by means of laying obligations directly 

 on states, upon whom also the respon.sibility for enforcement lies, leaving any 

 change in the .scheme to be projjo-sed and considered on an ad hoc basis within 

 IMCO, and to be brought about if at all by the treaty-amending processes. 



The earliest IMCO Convention is the 1954 International Convention for the 

 Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil, since amended in 19(>2, 1969, and 1971. 

 The basic effect of the Convention is to prohibit intentional discharges of oil 

 into the sea by ships, in other than negligible amounts. Enforcement against 

 violating vessels is left exclusively to the state of registry. 



Two conventions adopted in 1969 (although not yet in force) are aimed at 

 damage resulting from major oil pollution casualties, of which the breakup of a 

 tanker at sea is the prime example. The convention relating to Intervention of 

 the High Seas in Case of Oil Pollution Casualties confers a right on a state to 

 take measures on the high seas which are necessary to protect its coasfs or its 

 related interests from pollution of the sea by oil, when there has been a casualty 

 at sea which might reasonably be expected to result in major damaging con- 

 sequences. It is limited to amelioration of pollution damage from oil. The con- 

 vention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage establishes strict liability 

 for the owner of an oil tanker from which oil has escaped into the ocean after 

 an incident, whether that oil has caused damage in the territory or the territorial 

 waters of a state party to the convention. Certain exceptions to strict liability — 

 e.g., acts of war, natural catastrophes, international acts on the part of a third 

 party — are stated. The convention establishes a limit on the liability of the ship- 

 owner, at approximately $14 million per casualty. 



A 1971 IMCO treaty, the Convention on the Establishment of an International 

 Fund or Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage (also not yet in force) was 

 designed to complement the 1969 Convention on Civil Liability. It provides for 

 compensation under a special regime, which includes a fund contributed to by 

 users of the ocean for purposes of transportation of oil by tanker, setting a limit 

 of $30 million, as opiwsed to the $14 million limit under the 1969 convention, 

 which imposed liability directly on shipowners. Where the requirements of the 

 convention have been complied with, a .shipowner is relieved of the additional 

 financial burden which had been imposed by the 1969 convention. Like the 1969 

 convention, it does not apply to damage beyond the territorial .sea. 



Finally, IMCO has completed, in draft form, an International Convention on the 

 Prevention of Pollution from Ships, which will be laid before an international 

 conference late in 1973. The objective of the conference, as described by IMCO, 

 is to achieve by 1975, if at all possible, but certainly by 1980, a "complete elim- 

 ination of the willful and intentional pollution of the sea by oil and noxious 

 substances other than oil, and the minimization of accidental spills." The con- 



