Editorial note

The 1996 Protocol will replace the 1972 London Convention once in force. Twenty-six ratifications or other expressions of consent by States are required before the Protocol will enter into force; and at least 15 of these must come from Contracting Parties to the Convention (Article 25(1)). The objective of the 1996 Protocol is to ‘protect and preserve the marine environment from all sources of pollution’ and, to this end, Contracting Parties are required to take effective measures to prevent, reduce and where practicable eliminate marine pollution caused by dumping or incineration at sea (Article 2). In respect of internal waters, each Contracting Party has a discretion either to apply the provisions of the Protocol or to adopt ‘other effective permitting and regulatory measures to control the deliberate disposal of wastes or other matter’ where such disposal would be ‘dumping’ or ‘incineration at sea’ within the meaning of the Protocol (Article 7(2)). The purpose of the Protocol is similar to that of the 1972 London Convention, but the Protocol is more restrictive: application of a ‘precautionary approach’ to environmental protection from dumping of wastes or other matter is included as a general obligation (Article 3(1)); a ‘reverse list’ approach is adopted where by Contracting Parties are required to prohibit the dumping of ‘any wastes or other matter’ with the exception of those listed in Annex 1, which require a permit; (Article 4(1) and 4(2)) incineration of wastes at sea is prohibited (Article 5); and the export of wastes or other matter to other countries for dumping or incineration at sea is banned (Article 6).