Introduction - Prevention of Pollution of the Marine Environment from Vessels - page 4

but the UNCLOS definition took a precautionary approach by including the phrase
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. This precautionary approach has a far reaching impact in shaping
both international legal and institutional framework for the prevention of pollution
of the marine environment.
Pollution of the marine environment may occur from different sources: land-
based activities, vessels, ocean dumping, atmospheric and offshore hydrocarbon
exploration, and other mining activities. However, IMO

likely to result

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s mandate is mainly
confined to the pollution from ships or vessel-source marine pollution. 14 The
focus here will be on vessel-source pollution. The types of vessels-source pollution
are numerous. At present, IMO deals with a number of marine pollution related
issues, including oil, chemical, garbage, sewage and air pollution; greenhouse gas
emissions form vessels, dumping of wastes and other matter; ballast water man-
agement; anti-fouling systems and ship recycling. These diverse issues prompted
the adoption of a huge number of international legal instruments under the auspices
of IMO.

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1.3 Historical Development of IMO Legal Instruments
and Institutional Structure for the Prevention
of Pollution of the Marine Environment from Vessels

As mentioned earlier, an international convention for the establishment of IMCO
was adopted in 1948. 15 The IMCO Convention entered into force in 1958 and the
Assembly of the new organisation met for the first time in 1959. However, nowhere
in the IMCO Convention was the prevention of vessel-source marine pollution
explicitly mentioned as a purpose of the organisation. Rather, the initial focus of the
organisation was maritime safety and efficiency in navigation. Moreover, compe-
tence of the organisation was very limited; the original article 2 of the IMCO
Convention provided that the functions of the organisation were consultative and
advisory.
In 1954, the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea
by Oil (OILPOL) 16 was adopted in a conference organised by the United Kingdom.
Despite IMCO

s limited competence in respect of marine environmental protection,
the OILPOL Convention specifically mentioned several functions to be undertaken
by IMCO when it came into being. The OILPOL Convention was followed by some
environmental protection provisions in the 1958 Law of the Sea conventions: the

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14

The term vessel-source marine pollution, pollution form ships and pollution from vessels will be
used interchangeably.
15 On IMCO see generally, Simmonds ( 1963 ), Johnson ( 1963 ), Juda ( 1977 ), O

Connell ( 1970 ), and

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Greenberg ( 1976 ).
16 International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil , opened for signature
12 May 1954, 327 UNTS 3 (entered into force 26 July 1958).