• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.12 no.4 s.27
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• pp.293-300
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• 2006

Domestic laws such as Korea Marine Pollution Prevention Law (KMPPL) which has been mae and amended according to the conclusions and amendments of various international conventions for the prevention a marine pollution such as MARPOL 73/78 were reviewed and compared with the major contents of the relevant international conventions. Alternative measures for legislating new laws or amending existing laws such as KMPPL for the acceptance of major contents of existing international conventions were proposed. Annex VI of MARPOL 73/78 into which the regulations for the prevention of air pollution from ship have been adopted has been recently accepted in KMPPL which should be applied to ships which are the moving sources of air pollution at sea rather tlnn in Korea Air Environment Conservation Law which should be applied to automobiles and industrial installations in land. The major contents of LC 72/95 have been accepted in KMPPL However, a few of substances requiring special care in Annex II of 72LC, a few of items in characteristics and composition for the matter in relation to criteria governing the issue of permits for the dumping of matter at sea in Annex III of 72LC, and a few of items in wastes or other matter that may be considered for dumping in Annex I of 96 Protocol have not been accepted in KMPPL yet. The major contents of OPRC 90 have been accepted in KMPPL. However, oil pollution emergency plans for sea ports and oil handling facilities, and national contingency plan for preparedness and response have not been accepted in KMPPL yet. The waste oil related articles if Basel Convention, which shall regulate and prohibit transboundary movement of hazardous waste, should be accepted in KMPPL in order to prevent the transfer if scrap-purpose tanker ships containing oil/water mixtures and chemicals remained on beard from advanced countries to developing and/or underdeveloped countries. International Convention for the Control if Harmful Anti-Fouling Systems on the Ships should be accepted in KMPPL rather tlnn in Korea Noxious Chemicals Management Law. International Convention for Ship's Ballast Water/Sediment Management should be accepted in KMPPL or by a new law in order to prevent domestic marine ecosystem and costal environment from the invasion of harmful exotic species through the discharge of ship's ballast water.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.23-40
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• 2019

The main purpose of this study is to analyze and examine the problems of the law systems of the safety and maintenance of nuclear facilities and to propose the improvements with respect to the related problems especialy focused on safety management of aquatic products. Therefore, the results of the paper would be helpful to build an effective management law system of safety and maintenance of nuclear facilities and fisheries products. The research methods are longitudinal and horizontal studies. This study compares domestic policies with foreign policies of nuclear plants and aquatic products. Using the above methods, examining the current system of nuclear-related laws and regulations, we have found that there exist 13 Acts including "Nuclear Safety Act", etc. Safety laws related on nuclear facilities have seven Acts including "Nuclear Safety Act", "the Act on Physical Protection and Radiological Emergency", "Radioactive waste control Act", "Act on Protective Action Guidelines against Radiation in the Natural Environment", "Special Act on Assistance to the locations of facilities for disposal low and intermediate level radioactive waste", "Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety Act". "Act on Establishment and Operation of the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission". The seven laws are composed of 119 legislations. They have 112 lower statute of eight Presidential Decrees, six Primeministrial Decrees and Ministrial Decrees, 92 administrative rules (orders), 6 legislations of local self-government aself-governing body. The concluded proposals of this paper are as follows. Firstly, we propose that the relationship between the special law and general law should be re-established. Secondly, the terms with respect to law system of safety and maintenance of nuclear plants should be redefined and specified. Thirdly, it is advisable to re-examine and re-establish the Law System for Safety and Maintenance of Nuclear Facilities. and environmental rights like the French Nuclear Safety Legislation. Lastly, inadequate legislation on the aquatic pollution damage should be re-established. It is necessary to ensure sufficient transparency as well as environmental considerations in the policy decisions of the Korean government and legislation of the National Assembly. It is necessary to further study the possibilities of accepting the implications of the French legal system as a legal system in Korea. In conclusion, the safety management of nuclear facilities is not only focused on the secondary industry and the tertiary industry centering on power generation and supply, but also on the primary industry, which is the food of the people. It is necessary to prevent damage to be foreseen. Therefore, it is judged that there should be no harm to the people caused by contaminated marine products even if the "Food Safety Law for Prevention of Radiation Pollution Damage" is enacted.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.318-325
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• 2015

Korea has very strong shipbuilding industry in the world, so many new ships are constructed in Korean shipyards. These built vessels are carrying out sea trial at sea before delivering to shipowner, and sea trial ships cause navigation risk to other passing vessels to accomplish sea trial tests as quick turning, zigzag maneuvering and crash astern etc. in traffic congestion conditions. It occurred more than 1 collision accident related sea trial for recent 5 years. It has been increased about 30% of risk because of navigation of sea trial vessel by marine traffic flow simulation. This paper analyzed marine traffic density surveyed by AIS data for 7 days, and investigated position of marine accidents for 5 years in Korean coastal waterway, it established the sea trial prohibition areas as 10/100 level of total marine traffic volume, which is considered no danger for ship operator. This analyzed maritime safety law for setting of the prohibition waters to propose the basic legal system. It makes contribution to marine pollution prevention by setting of the sea trial prohibition water to improve the ship's navigation safety.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.143-150
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• 2013

The Honolulu Strategy is a framework document to address marine debris issue globally. The Fifth International Marine Debris Conference held in March 2011 and organized by NOAA and UNEP catalyzed the development of the Holonulu Strategy. Goals of the Strategy are to reduce the amount and impact of land-based, sea-based, and accumulated marine debris. A set of strategies for each goal were provided for education and awareness, legislation, and alternative technologies. The Strategy also lists indicators that could be used to evaluate outcomes of strategies. The adoption of the Honolulu Strategy by the international community has led the international organizations such as GPA, IMO, and CBD to strengthen their responses to the marine debris issue. UN has also set up specific actions that will be implemented until 2025 through its resolutions on marine debris. Recent global developments related to the marine debris issue might lead to a change in the character of the international marine debris management from the current soft law regime to a mandatory one. The Honolulu Strategy could provide a guideline when the Korean government formulates the Second Basic Plan for Marine Debris Management, especially with its prevention-oriented approaches, utilization of scientific policy development tools, and adoption of evaluation system using performance indicators.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.193-202
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• 2006

The Consultative Meeting of the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and other matter, 1972 (London Convention 1972) has requested to International Maritime Organization (IMO) Marine Environmental Protection Committee to collaborate and help clarify a boundary issue between International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Shops, 1973 as modified by the Protocol of 1978 (MARPOL) and the London Convention concerning 'dumping' versus 'discharges' during normal operations of ships in 2004, and subsequently established a Joint London Convention/MEPC Correspondence Group. The Contracting Parties to London Convention expressed their environmental concerns on the broad interpretation of the "cargo-associated wastes" by the States, which could be discharged by ships under MARPOL. Regulatory regimes for the cargo residues appear to vary among states. Some countries require fur ships to discharge their cargo wastes into the port reception facility and IMO also recommends doing so. This paper examines the related current national and international legal texts for the regulation of disposal of wastes from ships in order to analyze the current global concern on the marine pollution associated with waste discharge during operations of ships. In particular, we attempt to evaluate the likely marine environmental consequences arising from the disposal of cargo residue using an hypothetical case for the coal cargo residue among bulk cargos in this paper, since location, magnitude and frequency of the discharge of coal cargo residues into the sea adjacent to Korean Peninsula are not readily available. The cargo residues may be discharged to the sea according to MARPOL 73/78; however, its marine environmental consequences can be significant depending upon the characteristics and amounts of wastes to be discharged. Also the public tolerance of the environmental consequences would be widely different among nations. Multilateral environmental agreements, in general, more strictly apply their rules if there are other options to disposal at sea, i.e. port reception facility in this case. Therefore, port reception facilities for the wastes generated by ships are recommended to be further constructed in major national ports in order to reduce the risk of environmental damages during the operations of ships.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.341-356
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• 2015

A nation has a sovereign right to develop and use its natural resources according to its policies with regard to development and the relevant environment. A nation also has an obligation not to harm other countries or damage environments of neighboring countries as consequences of such actions of developments or use of natural resources. However, international precedents induce a nation to take additional actions not to cause more damages from the specific acts causing environmental damages beyond national borders, when such acts have economic and social importance. That is to say that there is a tendency to resolve such issues in a way to promote the balance between the mutual interests by allowing such actions to continue. A solution to China's Three Gorges Dam dilemma based on a soft law approach is more credible than relying on a good faith approach of national responsibilities and international legal proceedings since the construction and operation of the dam falls within the category of exercising national sovereign rights. If a large scale construction project such as the Three Gorges Dam or operation of a nuclear power plant causes or may cause environmental damage beyond the border of a nation engaged in such an undertaking, countries affected by this undertaking should jointly monitor the environmental effects in a spirit of cooperation rather than trying to stop the construction and should seek cooperative solutions of mutual understanding to establish measures to prevent further damages. If China's Three Gorges Dam construction and operation cause or contain the possibility of causing serious damages to marine environment, China cannot set aside its national responsibility to meet international obligations if China is aware of or knows about the damage that has occurred or may occur but fail to prevent, minimize, reverse or eliminate additional chances of such damages, or fails to put in place measures in order to prevent the recurrence of such damages. However, Korea must be able to prove a causal relationship between the relevant actions and resulting damages if it is to raise objections to the construction or request certain damage-prevention actions against crucial adverse effects on the marine environment out of respect for China's right to develop resources and acts of use thereof. Therefore, it is essential to cumulate continuous monitoring and evaluations information pertaining to marine environmental changes and impacts or responses of affected waters as well as acquisition of scientific baseline data with observed changes in such baseline. As China has adopted a somewhat nonchalant attitude toward taking adequate actions to protect against marine pollution risks or adverse effects caused by the construction and operation of China's Three Gorges Dam, there is a need to persuade China to adopt a more active stance and become involved in the monitoring and co-investigation of the Yellow Sea in order to protect the marine environment. Moreover, there is a need to build a regular environmental monitoring system that includes the evaluation of environmental effects beyond borders. The Espoo Convention can serve as a mechanism to ease potential conflicts of national interest in the Northeast Asian waters where political and historical sensitivities are acute. Especially, the recent diplomatic policy advanced by Korea and China can be implemented as an important example of gentle cooperation as the policy tool of choice is based on regional cooperation or cooperation between different regions.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.11 no.2 s.23
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• pp.41-49
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• 2005

In general, the criminal responsibility of seaman should always be directly assumed by the seamen, according to the principle of self-incrimination. Therefore, the only possible countermeasures for the criminal responsibility of seamen may be to reduce the responsibility by using criminal procedures (ex. the warrant substance examination system, the review system of legality for confinement as much as possible. Another possibility is to reduce the penalty through the revision of the law. In detail, concerning the problem of fine, the maximum fine for oil spill accidents by criminal negligence is KRW 30,000,000 under the current Ocean Pollution Prevention Act, and when an oil spill occurs, the maximum fine tends to be levied regardless of the amount of the spilled oil; thus, it is judged that grading the fine according to the amount of spilled oil may be worth considering. Regarding P & I's payment of fine, contrary to general belief, it is only possible to make up the loss when P & I takes up the legal responsibility or acknowledges its payment. In order to solve the problem, it is possible to consider the option of introducing new collective insurance program or mutual aid system. Also, as seamen are not specialists in legal issues, the ship owners' association or the marine afficers' association need to develop some program through which they can receive systematic assistance from legal specialists including lawyers when they encounter any legal problems (ex. free legal aid programs for farmers and fishermen). Finally, it may be possible to establish enact new laws or revise the existing Act on Special cases Concerning the Settlement of Traffic Accidents to insert a new section on marine accidents.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.138-149
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• 2008

Rapid accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere for the past century leads to acidify the surface ocean and contributes to the global warming as it forms acid in the ocean and it is a green house gas. In order to curb the green house gas emissions, in particular carbon dioxide, various multilateral agreements and programs have been established including UN Convention of Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol for the last decades. Also a number of geo-engineering projects to manipulate the radiation balance of the earth have been proposed both from the science and industrial community worldwide. One of them is ocean fertilization to sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through the photosynthesis of phytoplankton in the sea. Deliberate fertilization of the ocean with iron or nitrogen to large areas of the ocean has been proposed by commercial sector recently. Unfortunately the environmental consequences of the large scale ocean iron fertilization are not known and the current scientific information is still not sufcient to predict. In 2007, the joint meeting of parties of the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter, 1972 and 1996 Protocol (London Convention/Protocol) has started considering the purposes and circumstances of proposed large-scale ocean iron fertilization operations and examined whether these activities are compatible with the aims of the Convention and Protocol and explore the need, and the potential mechanisms for regulation of such operations. The aim of this paper is to review the current development on the commercial ocean fertilization activities and management regimes in the potential ocean fertilization activities in the territorial sea, exclusive economic zone, and high seas, respectively, and further to have a view on the emerging international management regime to be London Convention/Protocol in conjunction with a support from the United Nations General Assembly through The United Nations Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea.