The 1991 Madrid environmental protection protocol. Contributions to marine pollution law

Abstract

The 1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty and its annexes contribute substantially to contemporary international law prohibiting marine pollution. As the Protocol approaches obtaining the number of ratifications necessary for entry into force, its relevance for international ocean law accordingly becomes more salient. Thus, measures in the Protocol and its annexes take on particular importance, as they are made to apply to all sources of pollution affecting the Southern Ocean ecosystem (i.e., sources from land, dumping, vessels, the atmosphere and the seabed). Such an all-encompassing approach well serves to bolster both the normative and policy framework for effecting anti-pollution marine law in the region.