Operational Pollution from Ships and Relevant International Law

Weaknesses in the exercise by flag States of powers of control and jurisdiction over their ships due to unwillingness and, sometimes, lack of human resources and/or infrastructure have led to an increased exercise of port State powers of control and jurisdiction over ships visiting their ports. It has been the conventional wisdom that port State control offers the greatest opportunity to combat ship-source pollution. The primary aim of this article is to see if such wisdom is correct by reviewing the primary sources of law (MARPOL). In the second section of this article the problems of the operations of both tankers and other vessels in relation to operational pollution are discussed. International law regulating operational pollution from ships is analysed in the third section in order to see how the content of the ‘primary’ rules has shaped the exercise of port State control. Some conclusions are drawn at the end of this article.