On Framing a Legal Regime for Marine Environmental Protection through Regional Cooperation in the South China Sea

ZHANG Xiangjun

On Framing a Legal Regime for Marine Environmental Protection through Regional Cooperation in the South China Sea

ZHANG Xiangjun*

With the recent economic boom in Southeast Asia,the South China Sea has been growing steadily in importance,especially to its coastal States.Even so,the South China Sea remains one of the least protected of the world’s enclosed and semi-enclosed seas.After researching the practices in other regional seas and those of the South China Sea,a potential solution has been devised of establishing a regime of cooperation in combating pollution in this critical sea area.When constructing such a legal regime,China should recognize its role and act more positively and actively during the process.

Regional cooperation;South China Sea;Marine environment

The establishment of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area has stimulated regional economic development in Southeast Asia.In step with this economic development,the importance of the South China Sea has been on the rise for its coastal States due to its rich resources and crucial role in navigation,the economy,politics and the environment.This is particularly true for China,which has claimed indisputable territorial sovereignty over the islands as well as certain rights in the historic waters within the“U-shaped line.”This innovative delimitation corresponds to the traditional Chinese maritime boundary line datingback several centuries.Considering its long history in the area,it seems natural that China should focus more attention and energy on the South China Sea. Some of the coastal States do not accept China’s claims,and disputes over sovereignty rights and jurisdiction among the coastal States have impeded cooperation and brought marine environmental protection to a standstill.Following a request from the Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia(COBSEA),the Global Environment Facility(GEF)launched a project called Reversing Environmental Degradation Trends in the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand. The results of the project indicated that the environment of the South China Sea,one of the biologically richest areas of the west Pacific,has been under tremendous pressure.This is due to the dramatic increase in pollutants being introduced into the sea,a byproduct of the coastal States’recent rapid growth in economy and population.The consequences could be dire:in short,the living resources of one of the world’s most bio-diversified areas could practically vanish.①UNEP.SCS Project Terminal Evaluation Terms of Reference[EB/OL]28 August 2008, p.1,at http://www.unep.org/eou/Portals/52/Reports/South%20China%20Sea% 20Annexes.pdf,3 July 2011.

The South China Sea,as with all semi-enclosed seas,is especially vulnerable to pollution.Of the various forms of marine pollution,accidents by massive oil spills are perhaps the most destructive.Oil spillages in other enclosed and semi-enclosed seas have attested to this,such as the Torrey Canyon,Erika and Prestige incidents which took place in 1967,1999 and 2002,respectively.Such accidents also sounded the alarm for states bordering the South China Sea,including China,underscoring the significance of marine environmental protection.

Ⅰ.The Necessity of Marine Environmental Protection in the South China Sea

A.Overview of Features of the Sea and Oil Tanker Navigation Wherein

A semi-enclosed sea,the South China Sea is also designated as a sub-region of the East Asian Seas Region,a regional sea as defined by the United Nations Environment Programme(UNEP).Prominent features of the South China Seainclude its contiguity to the continental land,defined maritime boundary lines, high-traffic navigational routes,a number of ports crucial to the coastal States’interests,bordering states having diversified political interests and undeveloped economies.Such features make this sea region markedly susceptible to pollution accidents,a problem exacerbated by its lack of cooperative efforts to protect the environment.Though up to the present regional cooperation has proven elusive,coastal States will be certainly not be spared the grave aftermath of pollution accidents if and when they occur in the future.

China has become the world’s second largest consumer and importer of oil,much of which arrives via the South China Sea.Moreover,although Japan and Korea are not among the coastal States,oil tankers bound for these two countries also pass through the South China Sea.Consequently,tankers frequently sail in and out of the region’s ports,causing navigational routes to become crowded,hazardous and complicated.Even for those oil tankers solely navigating through this region without calling at port,they tend to sail near coastlines for safety and costs.This method facilitates rescue service and increases access to port facilities in case of emergency.According to the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation(ITOPF),serious oil spills generally occur in the vicinity of coasts,bringing severe environmental disasters to both land and sea.①Some of the more high-profile incidents include Exxon Valdez,Hawaiian Patriot,Torrey Canyon,Amoco Cadiz,Odyssey,Aegean Sea,Urquiola,Prestige,Jakob Maersk,Khark’s Atlantic Empress,Abt Summer,Castillo De Bellver,Katinap,Braer,Sea Empress,Haven, Independenta,Irenes Serenade,and Sea Star.See ITOPF,Major Oil Spills(figure 7),at http://www.itopf.com/information-services/data-and-statistics/statistics/,29 March 2011.In enclosed and semi-enclosed seas,the rate of water exchange-highly correlated with the rate of decontamination-is much lower than that in the high seas.The likelihood of accumulating persistent pollution is therefore much higher in these seas.Enclosed and semi-enclosed seas play a critical role in transportation,fishery,tourism and other marine activities for coastal and non-coastal States alike,yet due to their geography,should a massive spill occur,what the coastal States would suffer would be more than environmental consequences.In other regional seas,with the exception of the two (South China Sea and East China Sea)appurtenant to China,coastal States are cooperating to prevent pollution by oil and other hazardous substances through agreed regulations or a specific annex or protocol to a general legal regime for protecting the marine environment.

In the South China Sea,oil spills are not a rare occurrence.Since 1975,the Malacca Strait has witnessed several such accidents.①Zhengdi Wang and Scott A.Stout,Oil Spill Environmental Forensics:Fingerprinting and Source Identification,Boston,MA:Academic Press,2007,p.491.Fortunately the accidents took place on the side facing the high seas and not within the semi-enclosed sea.The same luck may not hold in the future,as the risk of accidents in the region continues to increase.Firstly,vessels carrying dangerous and hazardous substances other than oil are now also navigating this sea region,which makes navigation even more congested/risky.Secondly,offshore oil exploration and exploitation could also give rise to oil spills.Thirdly,coastal nuclear plants also pose a significant risk.Without a regulatory instrument in place[to prevent negligent practices,phase out substandard vessels,and enable cooperative rescue and salvage efforts],the likelihood of a major accident would increase dramatically,and the results could be catastrophic.

B.Regional Cooperation Practice in Combating Sud den Pollution in the South China Sea

The South China Sea is integral to the coastal States’environmental,economic and political interests.In using the advantage that the Sea offers as a means to fulfill their domestic interests,the coastal States inadvertently expose it to the threat of serious pollution incidents.In spite of this ever-present risk, there is still no regional legal regime for regulating marine activities in the South China Sea.

The legal regime of the East Asian Seas,a regional sea programme under the auspices of UNEP,is like other regional seas under the direct administration of UNEP,in that the method for achieving regional cooperation in marine environmental protection in the East Asian Seas follows the convention-protocol approach first observed in the Mediterranean region.In the East Asian Seas region,marine environmental protection was taken into consideration decades ago,but progress was astonishingly slow.Currently the coastal States utilize a non-binding regional action plan as a basis for cooperation.In other words,marine environmental protection depends entirely on the“good will”of the plan’s member states.Cooperation in the South China Sea is essentially voluntary and non-binding.

Two events over the past decade might be considered promising:the De-claration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea,concluded at the second East Asian Seas Congress 2002,which elaborates response plans to spillages of oil and chemical substances at sea;and the 2011 Guidelines of Implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea. Nevertheless,these documents solely demonstrate the shared intention among the coastal States to cooperate.Without legally binding status,such expressions of good will are,in practical terms,unenforceable.

C.Potential Problems incurred by Lack of a Legal Regime for Cooperation in Combating Pollutions in Emergency

In light of historical pollution incidents in and the current non-regulated state of the South China Sea,future discharges of pollutants in this region might encounter the following complications:

Firstly,cooperation among the coastal States will be virtually nonexistent. The typical pattern of international legal regime development indicates that coastal States tend to act on their own interests without considering common environmental concerns when there is no legally binding instrument in place. Moreover,some states may unilaterally regulate and enforce their domestic rules in an international sea area.In the first half of the 20thcentury,legal regimes for marine environmental protection in the United Kingdom and the U-nited States were characterized by this practice.①At that time the width of territorial seas was generally accepted as 3 nautical miles(nm), yet the United States claimed a 50 nm-wide belt for the enforcement of its oil pollution control measures,which in practice was even widened to 100 miles.See Sonia Zaide Pritchard,Oil Pollution Control,London:Routledge Kegan&Paul,1987,pp.62～63.

Secondly,a gap difficult to bridge may appear between the applicable spaces of domestic rules and international rules.The Torrey Canyon incident called the international community’s attention to a similar gap between these two sets of rules.Briefly put,by relying strictly on domestic or international laws without considering features particular to a regional sea,cooperative attempts to combat spills of oil or other hazardous substances could worsen rather than ameliorate the situation.

Thirdly,the possibility of sustaining damage from an accidental release might be overshadowed by an unwillingness of states to offer assistance to vessels when there is no direct link to a given vessel or its cargo.

In conclusion,the latent risk of serious pollution incidents occurring is becoming ever greater in the South China Sea.Due to the lack of a functional legal regime for regional cooperation,serious environmental,economic and political problems could assail the coastal States at any time.

Ⅱ.The Possibility of Regional Cooperation to Protect the Marine Environment in the South China Sea

A.Definition of a Regional Sea

One characteristic shared by all regional seas is a limited capacity for decontamination.Incidentally,there is no universal agreement concerning the precise definition of this type of sea.The designation“regional sea”used by UNEP is defined the same as the term enclosed or semi-enclosed sea,introduced by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea(the Convention).

Enclosed or semi-enclosed sea means a gulf,basin or sea surrounded by two or more States and connected to another sea or the ocean by a narrow outlet or consisting entirely or primarily of the territorial seas and exclusive economic zones of two or more coastal States.①See article 122 of the UNCLOS.

According to this definition,regional seas are clearly defined geographical entities.Due to being mostly surrounded by land these bodies of water have very limited decontamination capacity and are therefore particularly susceptible to the effects of pollution.The health of a regional sea’s marine environment depends heavily upon the degree and effectiveness of cooperation among coastal States,as article 123 of the Convention confirms.This article was inspired by a number of regional marine environmental protection conventions concluded inpre-Convention years.①These include the Agreement for Co-operation in Dealing with Pollution of the North Sea by Oil in 1969;the 1974 Helsinki Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area;the 1976 Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea against Pollution;the 1978 Kuwait Regional Convention for Co-operation on Protection of the Marine Environment from Pollution;the 1981 Convention for Cooperation in the Protection and Development of the Marine and Coastal Environment of the West and Central African Region;and the 1981 Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and Coastal Areas of the South-East Pacific.See Agreement for Co-operation in Dealing With Pollution of the North Sea by Oil,at http://sedac.ciesin.org/entri/texts/ pollution.north.sea.by.oil.1969.html,15 June 2012;UNEP,The Regional Seas Programmes,at http://www.unep.org/regionalseas/,30 February 2011.Such conventions have been successful in large part because of their consideration of regional features.These agreements clearly spell out geographical boundaries of a given regional sea,which lends itself to effective regulation as these seas are neither too small to deserve attention nor too large to be regulated in actual practice.②Veronca Frank,The European Community and Marine Environmental Protection in the International Law of the Sea:Implementing Global Obligations at the Regional Level, Leiden/Boston:Martinus Nijhoff Publishers,2007.p.31A few regional conventions concluded in recent years also emphasize the feasibility and suitability of regional cooperation for marine protection,especially marine protection in enclosed and semienclosed seas.③U.N.General Assembly.Report on the work of the United Nations Open-ended Informal Consultative Process established by the General Assembly in its resolution 54/33 in order to facilitate the annual review by the Assembly of Developments in Ocean Affairs(Third Meeting,April 8-15,2002).5-7,at http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/ GEN/N02/395/80/PDF/N0239580.pdf?Open Element,29 March 2011.

B.Suitability of Regional Cooperation for Marine Environmental Protection

Compared with the vast,open high seas,enclosed and semi-enclosed seas are much more vulnerable to accidental pollution and sensitive to the maritime activities of coastal States.Consequently,a legal regime suitable for an enclosed or semi-enclosed sea is different from an international convention governing all the world’s seas and oceans,and also different from domestic laws of a sovereign state that regulate the waters under its jurisdiction.Since the Convention is to be uniformly applied to the whole international community,a delicate balance of heterogeneous interests on common international issues is required,and at times the exact specifications of tangential concepts such as re-gional seas inevitably fall to the wayside.However,in a regional sea based on clearly defined geographical boundaries,common or similar historical backgrounds of coastal States,common interests concerning exploration and exploitation of resources as well as shared environmental issues,regional cooperation is a more suitable and feasible way to effectively protect the marine environment.The coastal States will be more prone to fulfill their environmental protection obligations under a regional Convention.

The historical record of regional cooperation in marine environmental protection testifies to the suitability of such an approach.The 1967 Torrey Canyon incident①Davod Axford and Colin Davies,The Breaking-up of the oil tanker Torrey Canyon,at http://www.axfordsabode.org.uk/torreycn.htm,15 June 2011.shocked the international community due to its disastrous impact on the marine environment.Over the following 20 years,various international legal regimes on marine environmental protection were rebuilt from the ground up.②Alexandre Charles Kiss and Dinah Shelton,Guide to International Environmental Law, Leiden;Boston:BRILL,2007,p.33.In the aftermath of the accident,the North Sea coastal States took efficient action,mustering an unprecedented degree of regional cooperation to confront the environmental problems caused by the spill.In 1969,the Agreement for Co-operation in Dealing with Pollution of the North Sea by Oil was concluded. This was and remains a very unique international legal instrument due to the rapid two-month transition from the date of conclusion to its entry into force.

In the international arena,this accident led to the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment,at which an Action Plan for the Human Environment was promulgated③UNEP,Report of the United Nations Conference on Human Environment,Stockholm,at http://www.unep.org/Documents.multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=97&ArticleID=,27 February 2011.and the UNEP established to take charge of coordinating international environmental protection.To deal with key environmental protection issues,UNEP took a three-step approach known as a“programmatic approach”.④Essam,El-Hinnawi:Two Decades of Achievement and Challenge,Nairobi:UNEP,1992. p.9.This programmatic approach was later implemented as the Regional Seas Programme.Undoubtedly,the Regional Seas Programme took its inspiration from the close cooperation of North Sea coastal States following the Torrey Canyon incident.Soon enough,this method of regional cooperation in marine environmental protection was also utilized in other enclosed andsemi-enclosed seas,including the Baltic,Mediterranean and others.Notably, the Mediterranean regional cooperation legal instrument became“both the archetype and the best working specimen of a regional cooperation agreement”,①Maria Gavouneli,New Forms of Cooperation in the Mediterranean System of Environmental Protection.Nordquist,Myron H.&Moore,John Norton.The Stockholm Declaration and Law of the Marine Environment.Leiden/Boston:Martinus Nijhoff Publishers,2003. p.223.greatly influencing the development of legal regimes in other regional seas.

C.General Practice of Regional Cooperation

Since the 1970s,a wide array of international conventions for marine environmental protection have been concluded.Altogether there are 13 UNEP regional seas programmes comprising 143 member countries-plus 5 more partner programmes,also known as independent programmes-in place to manage the world’s enclosed and semi-enclosed seas.Of the 18 regions,14 have concluded their own regional conventions to facilitate cooperation,complete with protocols or annexes that address specific issues of marine environmental protection,including but not limited to pollution from land-based sources;speciallyprotected areas;biodiversity;vessel-source pollution;cases of emergency;pollution from exploration and exploitation of resources on or beneath the continental shelf;pollution by transboundary movement of hazardous wastes and their disposal,etc.Four regions are left without regional cooperation conventions: two are the exceptional polar areas of the Arctic and Antarctic,and the other two are the East Asian Seas Region and Northwest Pacific Region,precisely the two regions of which China is a coastal state.As for the South China Sea,it is considered a sub-region of the East Asian Seas Region.

Ⅲ.Application of Regional Cooperation for Marine Environmental Protection in the South China Sea

A.Experiences of Cooperation in Other Regional Seas

Precedents in the other 14 regional seas demonstrate that the environmental and economic benefits of maintaining a healthy regional sea provide enough impetus for bordering States to negotiate past their diverging interests.Theseseas are important to the wellbeing of coastal States and therefore deserve genuine efforts and ample foresight to resolve the problems they face.The models of legal regimes governing other regional seas are of great value in forming an analogous system in the South China Sea.Simply put,regional cooperation might be delayed due to conflicting economic and political interests,but it is not impossible.Marine environmental protection goes hand in hand with coastal States’economic interests in the South China Sea,and acceptance of this fact will pave the way to future cooperation.

Some instructive examples of regional cooperation in marine environmental protection include the North Sea/Northeast Atlantic region,the Baltic,and the Mediterranean Sea.Experiences in the North Sea/Northeast Atlantic region shed light on the following aspects of cooperation:Firstly,the basic benefit of the marine environment may be overlooked in the short term:①After World War I,the United Kingdom focused on its domestic marine environmental law and made efforts to stimulate international cooperation,but with little success.See Sonia Zaide Pritchard,Oil Pollution Control,London:Routledge Kegan&Paul,1987,p. 6.nonetheless,with a long-term vision,it’s the significance which is decisive for cooperation.Secondly,cooperation in a sub-region can lay a sound basis for cooperation in an entire region.Thirdly,legal rules with political mechanisms attached will promote cooperation more efficiently than those without.Fourthly,if one or more states take a proactive stance,regional cooperation will be accelerated. In the Baltic,the most salient lesson is that the importance of a well-maintained marine environment can be sufficient to overcome dissimilar or even opposing political interests.②Fitzmauurice,Malgosina International Legal Problems of the Environmental Protection of the Baltic Sea,The Hague:Kluwer Academic Publishers,1992,p.15.Except for that,the presence of an external driving force will facilitate cooperation.As“the best working specimen of a regional cooperation agreement”,the Mediterranean Sea is inspiring for the following reasons:Divergences in economic and political circumstances among the bordering states were well accommodated by a clever convention-protocol regime. The centerpiece of such an arrangement is a convention that addresses common problems in the region,whereas protocols play a supplementary role and state members retain the right to accept them or not,depending on their domestic situation and practical capacity to fulfill the subsequent obligations.Apart from that,the development of the Mediterranean’s legal regime showed the necessity of having a state or states in the region agitating for regional coopera-tion in order for it to be realized.①Chung,Suh-Yong,Is the Mediterranean Regional Cooperation Model Applicable to Northeast Asia?,Georgetown International Environmental Law Review,Winter 1999,p.364; Andrew T.Guzman and A.O.Sykes.Research Handbook in International Economic Law,Cheltenham,Camberley:Edward Elgar Publishing,2007,p.484.

B.A Specific Mode for Regional Cooperation in Marine Environmental Protection in the South China Sea

Based on the marine environment in the South China Sea and experiences in other regional seas,it is submitted that a legal regime for marine environmental protection in the South China Sea could,with some modifications,be established on the basis of two successful regimes already in place:those of the Mediterranean and North Seas.

The Mediterranean Sea’s convention-protocol framework consists of a regional convention for general marine environmental protection drafted and approved by all member states,with protocols for tackling specific issues,such as accidental spillages,to be concluded and approved according to need and each country’s capacity for obligation fulfillment.Member states are obliged to approve at least two specific protocols.Under such a framework,discrepancies among member states in their capacities for fulfilling conventional obligations are taken into consideration.But it has a shortcoming,that is,it takes a long time to construct such a convention-protocol framework,which requires an active inside party in the region to promote the construction.

Certain aspects of the North Sea/Northeast Atlantic regime that may smoothen the course of developing a legal regime for the South China Sea also merit discussion.At first,bordering states in this regional sea concentrated on the specific issue of marine environmental protection,particularly the prevention of oil spills in the North Sea,as the core of a multilateral convention.Later modifications were appended to this initial agreement to address other specific issues.This region utilized a divide-and-conquer strategy,adopting quite a few specific conventions,then on the basis of these concluding a general convention for marine environmental protection.This strategy results in conventions with a specific,even narrow focus,allowing for greater cost and time efficiency.Moreover,through undergoing this process,member states gain much valuable skill and experience in cooperating to enhance marine environmental protection and draft regional legislation.Nonetheless,such an approach is rela-tively ad hoc in nature and could neglect to address long-term issues.Member states must devote themselves to and expend great efforts for the conclusion of a comprehensive convention,since as a prerequisite several specific conventions are needed.For the South China Sea,this approach is not very practical in all respects,though it may prove useful in some.

To frame a legal regime in the South China Sea for marine environmental protection,a suitable and feasible start would be to conclude a regional convention on a specific issue then afterward tack on modifications,as was done in the North Sea region.Later on,the Mediterranean Sea approach could be utilized to conclude an umbrella convention for marine environmental protection,including protocols for specific needs.Adding protocols helps cope with discrepancies among coastal States that may affect their ability to fulfill conventional obligations.In the South China Sea,the most conspicuously lacking element is an active insider State,such as China,to push forward such a process.The history of international legislation shows that when a state promotes and takes substantive action to conclude a regional convention,that state does so to preserve and realize its own significant interests in that area.In addition,after the convention’s conclusion those interests can be more effectively maintained and safeguarded.This fact is important and inspiring for China,a prominent though disadvantaged maritime state.

C.A Positive Role for China to Take in Convention Conclusion for Marine Environmental Protection in the South China Sea

The semi-enclosed South China Sea is of great value and significance to its coastal States.This includes China,which relies heavily on the Sea to conduct various activities:fishery;transportation;offshore oil and gas exploration and exploitation;marine environmental protection;and even geo-politics.China must not take efforts to establish a functional legal regime in the South China Sea lightly and should devote more efforts to the process.Among the abovementioned aspects of maritime activities,marine environmental protection is the most promising one.For one,the other aspects touch on rather sensitive political issues,and focusing on them could invite outside interference in regional affairs.Perhaps the best approach for China to maintain and preserve her interests in the region is to promote regional cooperation in a relatively apolitical way by honing in on the marine environment.Considering the environmental risks and regional features of the South China Sea analyzed above,one may conclude that regional cooperation in marine environmental protection is both flexible enough for future modification and suitable for present needs.

To maximize the effectiveness of marine environmental protection measures,it is imperative that all bordering states in the South China Sea be aware that the risk of serious pollution incidents occurring increases day by day. Therefore,when framing a regional legal regime for marine environmental protection in the South China Sea,it will be necessary to take practical needs,current circumstances and the region’s individual characteristics into consideration,all the while benefiting from the experiences of other regions.

When framing such a regional legal regime in the South China Sea,the following aspects should be considered:

Firstly,the objective of a future convention should be clearly defined, namely,to prevent the discharge of pollutants at sea through cooperation among member states.Cooperation is key to effective pollution prevention.It will also be necessary to delimit regional boundaries between the member states to head off jurisdictional conflicts or the unilateral enlargement of jurisdiction by any member.

Secondly,certain principles should ideally be incorporated into a convention on marine environmental protection.The precautionary and“polluter pays”principles should be observed,and a mechanism for cooperation among member states should be set forth in detail.Of the three,making a cooperative mechanism available to the member states is of foremost significance.This would entail the creation of avenues for information exchange,technical assistance and inter-party coordination through a competent central organization.

Thirdly,key terms used in the convention,such as accidental pollution,oily substance,hazardous substance,and maritime interests,should be clearly defined.These terms should be consistent with corresponding terms found in international law statutes and the domestic laws of member states.

Fourthly,a convention should promote capacity building to help member states meet their obligations,such as preventing accidental pollution through enforcing specific measures;installing a fair payment and reimbursement system in case an accident occurs;and providing adequate port facilities for commercial activity and safe haven for vessels in case of emergency.

Finally,a convention must contain some procedural rules relating to the nature and frequency of member states’conferences,the relationship between the convention and other related international legal instruments,signatures,approval,accession requirements,etc.

In theoretical and practical terms,a sound legal regime of marine environmental protection is indispensable for protecting and realizing the interests of coastal States within the South China Sea and indeed the entire East Asian Sea Region.Due to the regional nature of outstanding environmental protection issues in the South China Sea,utilizing the motor of regional cooperation is obviously the most suitable approach to solving these problems.It will be necessary to construct a binding legal instrument to realize such cooperation.

Undoubtedly there are discrepancies in economic and political interests among the South China Sea’s coastal States.Nevertheless,the fact that they share a surpassing interest in marine environmental protection is undeniable. In the 1960s the international community began to perceive this common interest,resulting in the formation of the Regional Seas Programme under the auspices of UNEP.With a fruitful history spanning several decades,there now exists an abundance of instructive and potentially repeatable experiences from other regional seas.These can help guide the formation of new regional legal regimes of marine environmental protection in other areas,such as the South China Sea.

For the South China Sea,a fitting system may be forged through gleaning from existing regional conventions.Ideally,this framework will provide a basis for the adequate prevention of accidental pollution incidents at sea and protection of the marine environment for the common benefit of the coastal States (This does not appear to include land-based pollution,which is the largest source of maritime pollution).Framing a legal regime for the South China Sea is neither impossible nor beyond the capabilities of its coastal States.With deepening economic ties between ASEAN countries and China,the prospect of cooperation in other fields is becoming brighter.As a common interest for the whole region,marine environmental protection is sure to be recognized as an issue to be cooperatively tackled.China has significant interests in this region, and should therefore assume a proactive,positive stance to enhance cooperation in marine environmental protection in the South China Sea.

(Editor:ZHONG Hongbin:

English Editor:Joshua Owens)

*ZHANG Xiangjun,PhD,is an associate Professor at Fuzhou University Law School.Her research focuses on the studies on International Law and International Law of the Sea.E-mail:reezxj@yahoo.com.cn.The present paper is the phrased result of the following projects:“Studies on the strategies to protect China’s Core interests in the South China Sea Region”,a Major Project funded by National Social Sciences Foundation(10 ZD&013);“A Comprehensive Construction of the Marine Environmental Protection Legal System in Fujian Province”,a project funded by Fujian Provincial Department of Education(JA 08027S);“Studies on the Legal System to Protect Marine Environment through Regional Cooperation”,a project funded by Fuzhou University.