The Enforcement of Pollution Prevention Measures in a Jointly Claimed Extended Continental Shelf: Examining Mauritius and Seychelles’ Treaty Framework in the Mascarene Plateau

Abstract

This article examines the extent to which Mauritius and Seychelles’ treaty framework in the Mascarene Plateau region is adequate for enabling them to enforce pollution prevention measures on vessels flying their respective flags as coastal states or vessels flying the flag of another state. The examination is undertaken in light of a coastal state’s duty to protect and preserve the marine environment from seabed activities subject to national jurisdiction as provided in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC). In this regard, discussions on the LOSC concern pollution prevention, reduction and control from such activities. Discussions are limited to Article 194(3), read together with Article 208 of the LOSC, and other applicable international legal instruments such as the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships and its 1978 Protocol (MARPOL 73/78). In light of the latter, the treaty examined is the Treaty Concerning the Joint Management of the Continental Shelf in the Mascarene Plateau region between the Government of the Republic of Seychelles and the Government of the Republic of Mauritius (JMT). It is found that, in terms of international law, Mauritius and Seychelles cannot adequately enforce pollution prevention measures owing to the JMT’s provisions being silent on how the Joint Authority’s regulations and contingency plans are to inform the contracting parties’ cooperative efforts to enforce such measures. The Joint Authority is an institution set up by the JMT whose functions include, inter alia, undertaking the day-to-day regulation and management of natural resource activities in the JMA. The inadequacy is problematic considering that the JMT is a joint development agreement wherein Mauritius and Seychelles have agreed to cooperate on activities undertaken in the jointly claimed and established Mascarene Plateau. Such cooperation, as is shown, must be undertaken pursuant to regulations adopted by institutions established by the Treaty to maintain the instrument’s, and by extension, the states’ cooperative integrity, which is integral to an eventual equitable delimitation solution as intended by the LOSC. Recommendations for amendments to the JMT to address this deficiency are advanced.