Designation of Marine Protected Areas (issues of international law)

INTRODUCTION. Treaty and customary rules of International Law of the Sea provide for the duty of States to protect and preserve the marine environment, using for this purpose “the best” means. States shall also cooperate in elaborating legal mechanisms for the protection and preservation of the marine environment on a universal, regional or bilateral basis. Universal treaty sources of modern international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982 (UNCLOS), among other numerous rules on protection and preservation of the marine environment, provide for the adoption by the coastal states more stringent ecological laws and regulations in “clearly defined” areas. Different terms are used for designating such areas in UNCLOS and other international instruments such as Convention for the Prevention of Pollution by Ships, 1973 modified by the Protocol of 1978 (MARPOL 1973/78); Convention on Biological Diversity, 1992; the Protocols adopted by the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP); documents of International Maritime Organization (IMO). Such terms are used: “special areas”; “marine protected areas”; “marine protected territories”; “particularly sensitive areas”. Not all these terms are used in UNCLOS and none of them is defined by the rules of this convention. Convention on Biological Diversity provides for the definition of “marine protected areas”, but only for the purpose of conservation of biodiversity. This paper addresses optional approaches to interpreting rules of international law which are relevant to marine protected areas and practice of states in designating such areas, first and foremost, in the waters of Arctic and Antarctic, where the consequences of marine pollution might be irreversible.MATERIALS AND METHODS. This paper demonstrates the evolving legal basis of international cooperation of states in establishing marine protected areas beginning from the text of the Washington convention of 1926, materials of the Committee of Experts of the League of Nations, the Convention for the Prevention of Pollution by Ships, 1973 as amended by Protocol 1978, and documents of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Particular attention is devoted to interpreting the rules on special areas provided in UNCLOS. The paper addresses also the relevant rules of the Convention on Biological Diversity, 1992; UNEP Protocols, beginning with the first of them – “the Protocol on Mediterranean Specially Protected Are