华东师范大学法学院晨晖学者沈灏在《Coastal Management》发表学术论文

华东师范大学法学院晨晖学者

沈灏

The due diligence obligation of sponsoring states requires state parties to enact laws and take administrative measures to secure effective regulation of the contractors of deep seabed mining and ensure that the contractors comply with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and regulations issued by International Seabed Authority (ISA). China has invested significantly in the exploration and exploitation of the deep seabed resources in the Area and China enacted its deep seabed mining law (DSM Law) in 2016 to fulfill its due diligence obligation as a sponsoring state. Environmental regulation is an important part of devising the international legal regime of deep seabed mining, and the ISA has been in the process of drafting Environmental Regulations. It is the sponsoring states’ obligation to ensure that the contractors comply with the environmental rules issued by the ISA. China’s DSM Law has many provisions stating the environmental obligations of its contractors; however, these provisions are phrased in rather general terms. It is necessary for China to take the next step as a sponsoring state and promulgate its domestic environmental regulation under its DSM Law in order to further fulfill its due diligence obligation. A procedure- oriented approach should be adopted for drafting the environmental regulation under China’s DSM Law. Ideally, the environmental regulation under China’s DSM Law should specify the rights and obligations of the contractors and domestic regulatory agency, delineating the environmental measures that the contractors need to take in different stages of exploring and exploiting deep seabed resources in order to comply with the environmental rules issued by the ISA.

China; deep seabed mining law; environmental regulation; International Seabed Authority; state sponsorship; UNCLOS