International law and the maritime carriage of radioactive materials: Prospects for the non-anthropocentric greening of international law.

摘要

A review of the legal regime governing the shipments of radioactive materials reveals an array of preventive and emergency measures as well as liability and compensation measures. The legal regime, however, does not provide any voice to all potentially affected entities, particularly developing Coastal States and the marine environment. The legal regime must be transformed in order to take the above interests into consideration.; Any reform in the legal system must start with an evaluation of the ethics and philosophy underlying the system. Understanding the ethical and philosophical basis of the legal regime contributes to the formulation of recommendations for reforms.; This thesis asserts that the principal reason why the interests of all potentially affected entities and the marine environment are overlooked is because the legal regime is principally anthropocentric. Under the anthropocentric framework, hazardous human activities which are economically beneficial are given primacy. The environment is protected to the extent that its degradation affects the beneficial outcomes of the activity. In the non-anthropocentric approach to the greening of international law, the interests of all potentially affected entities, including the marine environment would be covered in the legal system.