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16 Geo. Int'l Envtl. L. Rev. 421 (2003-2004)
Environmental Concerns in the Adjudication of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea

handle is hein.journals/gintenlr16 and id is 431 raw text is: Environmental Concerns in the Adjudication of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea CHRISTOPH SCHWARTE* CONTENTS I. Introduction ........................................ . . 421 II. Analysis of the Cases ................................... 424 A. The Arrest and Release of Shipping Vessels ................ 424 1. The Flag State Issue ............................. 425 2. The Reasonableness of the Bond .................... 426 3. Interpreting Reasonableness ....................... 428 B. The SBT Cases (Australia and New Zealand v. Japan) ......... 429 C. The Mox Plant Case (Ireland v. United Kingdom) ............ 432 D. Land Reclamation Activities (Malaysia v. Singapore) .......... 435 Il1. Conclusion ......................................... 439 I. INTRODUCTION Despite the ocean's great natural capacity for self-purification, the health, productivity, and biodiversity of the marine environment is severely threatened by human activities. The amount of harmful substances entering the seas has multiplied over the last few decades. Marine species increasingly show signs of contamination and damage from pollution. At the same time, harvesting the living resources of the sea has been transformed into a highly industrialized commerce reaching even the most removed areas. The unfettered use of drift nets or bottoms trawls,' while destroying other sea life and vital habitats, has also reduced many fish stocks past sustainable levels.2 New technologies facilitating offshore oil drilling or the exploitation of the ocean floor are likely to further aggravate the situation. Therefore, Klaus Topfer, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program, predicted that unless this trend is reversed * Christoph Schwarte is a German lawyer who holds a LLM from the University of London (SOAS) and has worked for the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea since 1998. He has published on environmental law and policy and can be contacted at: cschwarte@web.de. The views expressed in this paper are the author's and do not represent in any way those of the ITLOS or its members. 1. Bottom trawling is a common mobile fishing method for catching certain types of fish and shrimp. Boats or ships tow heavily weighted nets that drag the seafloor and catch everything in their path. 2. For more information, see for example Food and Agriculture Organization, The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2002 (SOFIA), available at http://www.fao.org/sof/sofia/indexen.htm.

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