| The ocean is the source of lives and the ultimate destination of the circulation of all substances on earth.Land was born from the ocean,and the seemingly independent circulation system of substances on land cannot be cut away from the ocean in the final analysis.Since the existence of mankind,it has had a great impact on the entire ecosystem.The mankind’s exploitation and use of terrestrial resources has also greatly affected the ecosystem and environment of the ocean.Although the marine environment ecosystem is the largest ecosystem on earth and is extremely resilient,the frequent onshore and offshore human activities,waste emissions,and over-exploitation of marine and terrestrial resources have broken the balance of the marine ecosystem and brought about marine pollution,causing direct and indirect harm to the marine ecosystem as well as human health in various ways.The land has clear boundaries and divisions due to the existence of sovereign States.The protection of the terrestrial environment is usually in the form of internal measures carried out by a nation or a region independently.In contrast,the oceans have no well-defined borders.Therefore,the marine environmental problem has regional characteristics and often requires a series of comprehensive and concerted measures adopted by several States at the same time.The concept of "regional seas"was adopted by the United Nations Environment Programme and has been applied in marine environmental governance practices around the globe.The core of regional governance of marine environment lies in the all-round treatment of the region,focusing on the concerted efforts at all levels with a holistic view of the ecosystem.The international community has explored a variety of mechanisms for regional governance of marine pollution based on the current conditions.Different regional governance mechanisms have similarities as well as differences.China,as a country of vast maritime territory,is also faced with severe marine pollution.The solution of these problems depends on the enhancement of China’s own governance capabilities,but China and its neighboring countries should also draw on the lessons of international cooperation in the past to remedy the flaws in regional governance and build a sound mechanism for regional cooperation.This research is also aimed at this purpose.The specific contents of each chapter are summarised as follows:The first chapter introduced the main sources of marine pollution,the types of marine pollutants and their corresponding influences,explained the necessity for regional governance in the current situation where the regional characteristics of marine pollution are becoming increasingly apparent,and made detailed analysis on the types and effects of legal governance mechanism of marine pollution.In the end,the author proposed some suggestions on the regional governance model and improved its logic in light of China’s current marine pollution situation and its shortcomings in the regional governance practice.Marine pollution demands prompt solution.This problem has exceeded the jurisdiction of single State so cannot rely on any single country to effectively solve this problem.However,marine pollution has regional characteristics by nature,for example the most severely polluted areas are the coastal areas,which means that marine pollution requires regional governance.The existing regional governance practices of the international community have made great accomplishments but still have some flaws and drawbacks.The second chapter elaborated on the basic principles of the application of regional governance of marine pollution from a theoretical perspective,and explained how the exclusiveness of single State’s"maritime rights" under the traditional international legal system had driven and limited maritime pollution governance,in order to further analyze the pros and cons of the subjects of international cooperation,pollution governance,and legal approach in current regional governance practice.The author then applied the governance theory to analyse why regional governance of maritime environment fits into the characteristics of the governance theory and demonstrated the theoretical advantage of regional governance of marine pollution compared with depending on single State or practices under the traditional international law system,which provided legal basis and support for the construction of regional governance mechanism of marine pollution.Subject to the influence of natural factors such as ocean currents and monsoons,the ocean bears obvious regional characteristics.If a single spot of a certain area is polluted,it may spread to the entire area and affect other adjacent areas.Therefore,pollution in different marine areas may require different regional governance measures.In addition,regional governance is affected by the different economic systems of coastal countries.Therefore,the international nature of the ocean also gave rise to different regional governance mechanisms.The third chapter mainly looked into the representative regional governance mechanisms of marine pollution,reviewed and analyzed the commonalities as well as problems in different mechanisms.In addition,this chapter also analyzed the regional governance mechanism under this research in combination with international laws and regulations,with close attention paid to the impact and effect of international laws and regulations on regional governance issues.For a long time,on the issue of prevention and control of marine pollution in regions,the willingness of the coastal countries in the region as stakeholders to contribute to the prevention of marine pollution has often been hindered by disputes over international sovereignty and jurisdiction.Since 1974,the Regional Seas Programme initiated by the United Nations Environment Programme has provided excellent opportunities for more than 140 coastal States and regions in the world,and built many representative mechanisms for regional governance.Although these mechanisms are embodied in different regional governance models,they share commonalities as mechanisms and are important system for the regional governance of marine pollution.Based on the study of representative regional governance mechanisms in third chapter and with a focus on the specific governance mechanism,The fourth chapter analyzed the characteristics and contents of relevant mechanisms.In combination with the efforts made by States and international organizations on international law,this paper studied the construction of main mechanisms in the regional governance models from the five aspects of information sharing,control and governance of source of pollution,pollution assessment and compensation,fund guarantee,and dispute resolution.The comprehensive construction of mechanism for regional governance in tackling marine pollution should include the establishment of:the information sharing mechanism based on the principle of risk prevention;cooperation mechanism based on the principle of multi-party co-governance;evaluation,assessment and compensation mechanisms of regional marine pollution,as well as the adoption of fund guarantee measures for regional governance of marine pollution and the establishment of dispute settlement mechanisms in the region.There have been profound changes in the global ocean governance system and the situation of regional marine pollution has become more severe.China,with its enhanced comprehensive national strength,is more willing to assume the responsibilities of a major maritime power and contribute to the global ocean governance,and has deepened its participation in the regional governance of marine pollution.At present,China has actively participated in global and regional ocean governance and already made some achievements.But it still falls behind in the formulation of international rules,the promotion and implementation of international cooperation,and coordination with other States.The further deepening of cooperation also faces challenges from the uneven levels of economic development among States in the region and disagreement in the demand for development of the marine economy and protection of the marine ecosystem.On top of that,international cooperation also faces difficulties from low degree of interdependence,complicated disputes,and intervention of States outside the region.Based on the past experience of China’s participation in regional cooperation and lessons it learned from the implementation of other regional cooperation mechanisms,China should first reach consensus with countries in the region on the ideas and targets of regional governance of marine pollution.China should set up common ideas at different level such as "community with shared future for mankind" and "blue partnership",and form a unified and tiered target system of regional governance.Then,China should cooperate with other regional countries on information disclosure and sharing,fund guarantee,coordination of domestic and international law at the legislative and enforcement levels,enhancement of domestic marine governance,as well as performance supervision and dispute resolution mechanism inside the region,so as to build a comprehensive institutional guarantee for regional cooperation.The fifth chapter explored the motivations,current status,ideas,targets,and institutional guarantees of China’s participation in the regional governance of marine pollution. |
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