Regional Issues and Challenges Linked to MARPOL

This chapter reviews tensions between MARPOL and regional rules. Following a brief overview of the regional seas regimes in general, the prime focus is on the European Union. The first example relates to the regulation of oil tanker construction in the aftermath of the 1999 Erika accident. A second example relates to sanctions for ship-source pollution and assesses the discrepancies between an EU Directive on the topic and the global regime set out by UNCLOS and MARPOL that formed the underpinning of the Intertanko case at the European Court of Justice. The third case study analyses climate change regulation, which is currently being regulated in parallel, but far from identically, by the IMO and the EU. The case studies prompt a more general discussion on the global uniformity of rules in the field of ship-source pollution, and on whether there is a legal case—or a need—for such uniformity.