국제해양법에 따른 한·중 해양환경보호 입법 비교 분석 및 협력 방안 연구

Abstract

The Yellow Sea is located between Korea and China, which is adjacent to each other without exceeding 400 nautical miles apart. As the Yellow Sea is a semi-closed sea, its self-purification capacity is poor and very slow. Therefore marine environmental pollution is getting worse. Moreover major and big cities are located around the Yellow Sea, such as Incheon in Korea and Dalian and Qingdao in China. There are a lot of people living in these cities, and they cause the land-based marine pollution. Not only that, but the rapid coastal development and industrialization of Korea and China are increasing the number of pollutants, resulting in intensifying destruction of the Yellow Sea ecosystem. During the operation of ships in the Yellow Sea, waste, dumping, and contamination by ships have occurred. Therefore, to protect the marine environment of the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea, a coastal State’s efforts cannot solve the issues of protecting the marine environment. Joint cooperation between China and Korea is the most effective way to solve the marine environmental problems of the Yellow Sea. Korea joined the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (hereinafter referred to as the UNCLOS) on January 29, 1996, and China joined the UNCLOS on May 15, 1996. As State parties to UNCLOS, the two States have the right and obligation to protect the marine environment. Therefore, Korea and China have formulated and implemented their own domestic laws in accordance with the UNCLOS. However, there is no agreement between Korea and China to protect the marine environment of the Yellow Sea, and so far the two States have not delimit the maritime boundary in this area. As I mentioned the above, the Yellow Sea is very vulnerable to environmental pollution, such as pollution from land-based source, waste, dumping, and contamination by ships. resulting in intensifying destruction of the Yellow Sea ecosystem. Therefore, Korea and China cooperation is of great significance to the protection of the marine environment of the Yellow Sea. So in this paper, I attempts to compare the relevant legislation of Korea and China on marine environmental protection, and put forward suggestions on the cooperation program of the two States on marine environmental protection in the Yellow Sea. Chapter Ⅰ is an introduction. Chapter Ⅱ is a general review of the development process and related agreements of marine environment protection system under the international law. As the development process of marine environmental protection system, this paper analyzes The United Nations Conference on the human environment in 1972， United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992，World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 and United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012. Then it analyzes 1958 Geneva Conventions on the law of the sea and 1982 UNCLOS. Chapter Ⅲ analyzes the legislation of the marine environmental protection between Korea and China based on UNCLOS. Following the analyses, it analyzes on the legislation of marine pollution sources in Korea and China comparatively, according to the classification of marine pollution sources in the UNCLOS. Chapter Ⅳ touched the cooperation plan for the protection of the Yellow Sea. Firstly, it analyzes the Barcelona agreement and protocol of the semi-enclosed Mediterranean marine environment project, and the basic system of marine environmental protection cooperation. Secondly, with the Northwest Pacific Action Plan as the center, analysis of the Northeast Asian marine environmental protection system. And then this thesis analyzes the Yellow Sea Wide Area Ecosystem Management Project (hereinafter referred to as YSLME) which is the cooperation program between Korea and China. Finally, from the perspective of the semi-closed Mediterranean model and Northwest Pacific Action Plan, it proposes a cooperation plan between Korea and China in the Yellow Sea marine environmental protection. Especially in the overlapping waters not delineated by the border between Korea and China, the necessity of cooperation between the two countries in marine environmental protection was analyzed. Chapter Ⅴ summarizes the issues of the thesis and suggests the preemptive measure.

keywords: Korea and China, semi-closed Yellow Sea, marine environment protection, legal comparison, cooperation.