The protection of the marine polar environment has increasingly become a matter of concern for Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties and Arctic states alike, as evident in the developments in the legal regimes which apply to the polar regions. In the case of the Antarctic Treaty System, attention has focused on the protection of the marine environment of the Southern Ocean through a combination of measures adopted at Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings and also through the 1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty. In the Arctic, concerns over the protection of the marine environment have been driven by the present and possible environmental consequences of land-based marine pollution, nuclear waste and the potentials for increased oil and gas exploitation as well as navigation through Arctic waters, especially by the Northwest Passage and the Northern Sea Route. Particular emphasis has been placed on Arctic marine environmental protection in the process of development and implementation of the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (AEPS), since 1991, and, since 1996, within the Arctic Council.

This chapter addresses these issues by considering how prominent polar states have influenced developments on the international scene while also seeking to implement through domestic policy and law a range of international responses aimed at protecting the polar marine environment. The aim is thus to demonstrate the importance of the domestic level, in both initiative-giving and in implementing commitments agreed through international cooperative fora or processes.