Md Saiful Karim Prevention of Pollution of the Marine Environment from Vessels The Potential and Limits of the International Maritime Organisation Tai Lieu Chat Luong Prevention of Pollution of the Marine Environment from Vessels ThiS is a FM Blank Page Md Saiful Karim Prevention of Pollution of the Marine Environment from Vessels The Potential and Limits of the International Maritime Organisation Md Saiful Karim Faculty of Law Queensland University of Technology Brisbane Queensland Australia ISBN 978-3-319-10607-6 ISBN 978-3-319-10608-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-10608-3 Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London Library of Congress Control Number: 2014955367 © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher’s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer.
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While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.com) Preface and Acknowledgements This book explores the role of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) as facilitator of the adoption and implementation of international legal instruments for the protection of the marine environment. While several studies have examined different aspects of the international legal regime concerning vessel-source marine pollution, none have presented a research monograph particularly emphasising or critically examining the role of IMO in the protection of the marine environment and the emerging challenges in fulfilling this role.
This book aims to fill that gap. It contributes to this aspect of international legal scholarship, with particular empha- sis on the north–south tensions IMO is currently facing. This book also presents an overview of the IMO legal instruments and their implementation process. It will work as a guide for the implementation of IMO marine environmental legal instruments.
This book is likely to interest environmental lawyers, international lawyers and those involved with environmental governance. This includes academics, govern- ments, international organisations and non-governmental organisations. Apart from the research and academic community, this book may be useful for government officials who are involved with national implementation of IMO marine environ- mental legal instruments, particularly officials of coast guards and maritime admin- istrations. Although it is a research monograph, this book may be used as a prescribed text for training programs for government officials, and as a recommended text for postgraduate courses on marine environmental law.
While writing this book, particular emphasis has been given to fulfilling the demands of the target readership. The idea of writing this book first came to my mind in 2006 when I was a research student at the National University of Singapore. There are two reasons for writing this book. The main reason is that the perspectives of least developed countries have not been well documented in the existing literature on vessel-source marine pollution.
Moreover, there is a shortage of books that concisely and criti- cally present the IMO law-making process and IMO marine environmental legal instruments for a new researcher in this field. As a new researcher in this field I felt v vi Preface and Acknowledgements both of these concerns when I was pursuing my research degree at the National University of Singapore. This book incorporates some materials from my three previously published articles including ‘Implementation of the MARPOL Convention in Developing Countries’ (2010) 79 Nordic Journal of International Law 303, Brill Academic Publishers; ‘Environmental Pollution from Shipbreaking Industry: International Law and National Legal Response’ (2010) 22 Georgetown International Environ- mental Law Review 185; and ‘Implementation of the MARPOL Convention in Bangladesh’ (2009) 5 Macquarie Journal of International and Comparative Envi- ronmental Law 51. I would like to thank the editors and publishers of those journals.
I would like to thank all the institutions with which I was involved in the last 10 years in different capacities including Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, National University of Singapore (NUS), Macquarie University and Southern Cross University (SCU). I am also grateful to my current employer, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), for providing excellent research support. My heartfelt gratitude goes to my former research supervisors Professor Natalie Klein and Professor Alan Tan. I would also like to thank my colleagues at the Queensland University of Technology for their unwavering support.
I would particularly like to thank my research assistants Alexander Button- Sloan and Paul T. Finally, my gratitude and love to my family.