The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOS Convention) was conceived as a framework convention regulating the relations of states in respect of all ocean space: it had to regulate all the different legal regimes at sea and all human activities on the seas and oceans. In addition to many other subjects, the Convention deals with the marine environment: it contains a system of rules on the protection and preservation of the marine environment. The application of those general rules to particular parts of the ocean space has often been examined. This chapter will scrutinise the environmental provisions of the LOS Convention with a view to their applicability to the polar oceans.

A very valid reason for such a study can be found in the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy (AEPS), adopted at the First Ministerial Conference on the Protection of the Arctic Environment in Rovaniemi, Finland, on 14 June 1991, where eight Arctic countries expressed their opinion on the relevance of the LOS Convention also for the implementation of the Strategy, as the Convention reflects customary international law: