Marine Environmental Protection in the South China Sea: An UNCLOS Paradigm

Abstract

This chapter talks about "Oil and Gas Developments and Environmental Protection in the South China Sea". The South China Sea certainly fits the description of an enclosed or semi-enclosed sea, defined in UNCLOS Article 122 as "a gulf, basin or sea surrounded by two or more States and connected to another sea or the ocean by a narrow outlet or consisting entirely or primarily of the territorial seas and exclusive economic zones of two or more coastal States". A joint bilateral initiative in the implementation of UNCLOS Part IX is the Philippines-Vietnam Joint Oceanographic Marine Scientific Research Expedition in the South China Sea (JOMSRE-SCS). The paradigm in UNCLOS Part IX offers itself and projects the end result of a comprehensive MEP scheme for the SCS that would eventually subsume related initiatives, schemes, programs and projects involving states in the Southeast Asian sub-region. Keywords: JOMSRE; marine environmental protection; marine environmental protection (MEP); oil development; South China sea (SCS); UNCLOS paradigm