This chapter is not concerned with what makes the polar regions different, or with the details of the legal and political regimes and institutions which govern them. Our concern here is the relationship between regional regimes and the broader global context of the law of marine environmental protection. No study of the international law relating to protection of the marine environment can fail to note the interplay of global, regional, sub-regional and national rules and institutions, or the variety of interrelated and sometimes overlapping treaties which deal with the marine environment at these various levels. This phenomenon has been likened to a ‘Russian doll effect’: as one layer of international regulation is peeled away, other layers appear beneath, until eventually the purely national layer is reached.

This portrayal may oversimplify the position of the polar regions, and especially that of the Antarctic. Partly because of the contested legal status of the Antarctic, and partly because of the ambiguities of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, the relationship between the Antarctic Treaty System and the law of the sea is a complex and uncertain one. Whether these two bodies of law conflict or co-exist is beyond the scope of this chapter, but the question is important to an understanding of the law relating to the protection of the marine environment in polar regions.