Joint Development Agreements: Towards Protecting the Marine Environment under International Law

Abstract

Utilization of the marine natural resources without protecting the marine environment may disseminate hazardous effects on the marine life. Under the United Nations Convention on law of the Sea (UNCLOS), state parties bear general obligation to protect and preserve the marine environment. Responsibility of protecting the marine environment has also been imposed by a number of international environmental and human rights conventions, mandated by the United Nations. Therefore, states are collectively responsible to safeguard the marine environment. Inclusion of environmental protection provisions, into the Joint Development Agreements (JDAs), was previously being neglected by the states, but as to the up-to-date practice, various states have been showing their commitments to protect and preserve the marine environment by including environmental protection provisions into the Joint Development Agreements. However, some states are still reluctant to include environmental protection provisions into their JDAs. This paper tries to examine the efforts made by different state parties regarding the protection and preservation of marine environment under the scope of joint development agreements. Moreover, this paper draws the attention of costal sates towards the best practices set by various countries in their joint development cooperation mechanisms aimed at protecting aquatic environment in disputed waters.

Keywords: Joint Development, environmental protection, marine.