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40 J. Mar. L. & Com. 291 (2009)
Port State Jurisdiction and Article 218 of the UN Convention on the Law of Sea

handle is hein.journals/jmlc40 and id is 297 raw text is: Journal of Maritime Law & Commerce, Vol. 40, No. 2, April, 2009 Port State Jurisdiction and Article 218 of the UN Convention on the Law of Sea Ho-Sam Bang* I INTRODUCTION Marine pollution from ships, whether caused by operational discharges or accidents, is a very serious problem. Most commonly associated with vessel- source pollution are oil spills, which cause devastating effects on the marine environment. Oil spills can foul the coastline in no time and kill a large number of sea creatures. Moreover, vessel-source pollution can pose a great threat to local fisheries and the tourism industry. Primary responsibility for regulating pollution from ships rests with the flag State. Flag States used to have sole responsibility in this regard, but for many years a number of flag states have been either unwilling or unable (due to, sometimes, the lack of their infrastructure and/or human resources) to take the necessary action to discharge their duty. Moreover, the problems of the exercise of the powers of flag States have been exacerbated by the advent of 'flags of convenience' (FOC) countries, most of which (if not all) laxly enforced relevant rules and regulations for their ships. As a result, there has been an increased use of port States' powers of control and jurisdiction over ships visiting their ports over the past 30 years. The willingness of port States to exercise powers of control and jurisdiction over sub-standard ships is important in controlling and reduc- ing vessel-source pollution. Ships not complying with the minimum standards contained in international maritime conventions such as MARPOL 73/78,' *Ph.D. candidate, School of Law, Cardiff University; BE., LL.M., Korea Maritime University; E- mail Address: banghs@cardiff.ac.uk. I am grateful to Professor Robin Churchill for helpful discussions relating to issues raised here and Dr Urfan Khaliq and Dr Erik Molenaar for their comments on an ear- lier draft of this article. 'International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, London, 2 November 1973, as amended by the Protocol, London, 1 June 1978 (in force 2 October 1983) 1340 U.N.T.S. 61.

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