Spaceflights may cause pollution of the Earth’s environment, including its maritime dimension, by emissions of harmful substances and jettisoned parts of space launch vehicles and de-orbited spacecraft. Although potentially significant, this source of pollution has received little international attention. In the absence of specific environmental provisions in the international law of outer space, the applicable environmental law provisions are derived from general environmental laws and multilateral environmental agreements such as the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. This Chapter argues that an effective environmental legal regime in the space sector needs to be developed further through more active cooperation between States. Such cooperation should first of all be aimed at gathering scientific knowledge about the marine environmental impact of spaceflights and strengthening the international institutional framework, before any substantive provisions on prevention of pollution can feasibly be developed.

Given that a healthy marine environment provides a foundation for all life, marine environmental protection is an issue of considerable importance in the law of the sea. In principle, the law regulates marine pollution according to its sources, such as land-based pollution, vessel-source pollution, dumping, pollution from seabed activities under national jurisdiction, pollution from activities in the Area and pollution through the atmosphere. Accordingly, this chapter will seek to examine the rules of international law regulating marine pollution arising from these sources. Particular focus will be on the following issues: (1) the key features that characterise marine environmental protection, (2) the significance of the LOSC in marine environmental protection, (3) rules regulating land-based marine pollution, (4) the mechanisms for regulating vessel-source marine pollution, (5) compliance with relevant rules governing marine environmental protection, and (6) the problem with the fragmentation of norms concerning marine environmental protection.

For the purpose of this Agreement, a product is to be considered as being dumped, i.e. introduced into the commerce of another country at less than its normal value, if the export price of the product exported from one country to another is less than the comparable price, in the ordinary course of trade, for the like product when destined for consumption in the exporting country.

This chapter examines relevant rules regulating export restrictions under the WTO framework, covering a set of provisions relating to export restrictions, WTO-plus obligations and commitments in accession protocols and Working Party Reports, proposals in Doha negotiations and regulations in regional trade agreements (RTAs). Under current WTO rules, the most relevant are Article XI of the GATT, Article 12 of the Agreement on Agriculture and Article 11 of the Agreement on Safeguards. In addition, export restrictions may constitute domestic subsidies to domestic downstream producers. The critical point is whether such criteria for a subsidy necessitate ‘a charge on the public account’. Export restrictions may also give rise to anti-dumping investigations where the determination of normal values is a key. The attempt to remedy the regulatory deficiency under the WTO agreements through accession negotiation processes, Doha negotiations and in RTA contexts have resulted in a patchwork of legal rules and given rise a systemic issue: how to integrate obligations and commitments in the accession protocols and Working Party Reports into the WTO Agreemen.

The chapter uncovers the problem of timber following the Great Depression, and the increasing concerns of spreading deforestation around the world.

The Kingdom of the Forests gained particular attention during the interwar period. International bodies were interested in coordinating the production and supply of different raw materials to the international market, both in regular times and during crises. Immediately after the Great War, the League became interested in timber in particular. When the Great Depression started to affect international commerce, timber production was at stake as well. Accusations against a dumping policy of the Soviet Union have been heard too. This alleged policy applied pressure of its own and put other national timber industries at risk. The League wished to support these industries and encouraged the development of an international regime of mutual cooperation between exporting and importing countries.

With the merging of economic and industrial threads, environmental considerations were woven into the plot, coloring the dilemma with urgent calls to restrict forest harvest in order to stop deforestation from expanding. In the late 1930s, different voices started to advocate for the protection of trees and forests, and encouraged the League to fight back against deforestation.

These dimensions added another layer to the economic incentives and industrial interests surrounding the timber issue.