Recent years have witnessed important developments that affect the polar regions of our globe, as well as their marine environments. In 1998, the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty came into force, and entered the phase of implementation. As to the Arctic, the post-ColdWar decade of regional collaboration has resulted in various outcomes as well: in particular the 1997–8 publication bythe Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) of the two Arctic Pollution Issues reports, and the current development of an Arctic Council Action Plan to Eliminate Pollution of the Arctic – though with some stillpending options for a follow-up on the level of regional policy. At the global level, vital developments have been the entry into force of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, with increasingly universal participation of states, as well as the emergence of other global instruments and arrangements relevant to the polar marine environment.

This book has been prompted largely by those developments. We wish to examine various approaches to protecting the polar marine environment – at the global, regional, sub-regional and domestic levels – and their actual application in selected issue-areas of marine pollution in polar oceans. Let us begin by posing some basic questions.

1. In respect of the various global instruments of environmental protection: to what extent are they applicable to the Arctic Ocean and the Southern Ocean?

2. In respect of the more specific arrangements worked out at the regional, sub-regional or national level: are they sufficient?