The Prospects for an Antarctic Environmental Liability Regime

Abstract

In view of the discussions at Consultative Meetings and in the ‘Group of Legal Experts on Liability’ convened under Article 16 of the 1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty¹ (Protocol),² the Consultative Parties seem to have agreed on the development of a special civil liability regime for damage to the Antarctic environment and dependent and associated ecosystems. This is also reflected in the draft annex on environmental liability, proposed by the chairman of the Group of Legal Experts on Liability (Eighth Offering or EO),³ and in the proposals of Australia, of Chile, of the Netherlands, of South American Consultative Parties jointly, and of the United Kingdom - that all were on the agenda of the 1999 Consultative Meeting in Lima.⁴ This chapter will analyse, in the light of the aforementioned proposals, the need and desirability of specific procedural and substantive rules of a special civil liability regime for damage to the Antarctic environment and dependent and associated ecosystems.