A Study On Legal Questions On Lnvasion By Non-indigenous Organism Through Ship Ballast Water

With the development of international trade and the increasing outside communication, the invasion of non-indigenous organism brought by ship ballast water imperils people’s health, ecological safety and economic development.Chapter1is about some definitions on non-indigenous organism in ship ballast water. First, the paper defines ship ballast water and ocean non-indigenous organism, then gives the definition of ocean invasive organism, and analyses the concept of invasive organism in the ship ballast water. Additionally, the topic is on the harm of invasion by invasive organism in the ship ballast water and the necessity of legislation.Chapter2analyses the relative international conventions on the invasive organism in the ship ballast water, CBD and UNCLOS, about their major content and defects, and conclude that the two binding conventions cannot prevent invasion by ocean non-indigenous organism in the ship ballast water effectively, it is necessary to make a new specialized convention, the BWM Convention. The analysis of the content of the convention, come to a conclusion that BWM Convention is a systematic regime on control and management of ship ballast water.Chapter3is American and Australian legislation on the ballast water management and their features, the purpose is to pave the below which we can use for reference.Chapter4is the legal questions of our nation on the ship ballast water management and the invasion of ocean organism, first the paper proceeds with the severe situation of invasion of ocean organism brought by ballast water, then analyses the General situation and the insufficiency of our relative laws, points out that we need a specialized law to prevent non-indigenous organism to invade our territory, at last, gives advices on legislation of the ballast water management, and some regimes which need to be built urgently.The conclusion is, our nation need to make a specialized law to govern the invasion of ocean non-indigenous organism, the foreign and international legislation offer us some good examples. In consideration of our current legal situation and technological level of ballast water treatment, we should add a chapter "Prevent the spread of exotic organisms, or pathogens through ship ballast water" in the current Law of environment protection or pollution from ships, and Maritime authorities enact matched specific rules and regulations.