Comparative Study on Marine Environmental Protection Legislation Between China and Japan from The Perspective of International Environmental Law

Abstract

With the development of the economy and the rapid expansion of the global population, the effective utilization of marine resources has become an important way to alleviate the burden of the global population and environmental pressure. After entering the 21st century, the ocean is a strong driving force to promote the sustainable development of human society, however, with the development of industry, many countries have more or less fallen into the “vicious circle” of developing at the expense of the ecological environment for economic benefit. In recent years, a large number of chemicals by human activities and exploitation at sea has caused an imbalance of ecological environment in large area of sea areas; Discharging a large amount of industrial wastewater into the ocean, has deepened the degree of eutrophication is greatly and resulting in frequent red tides; the dumping of land waste makes it impossible for marine life to survive, and a large number of marine plants and animals died. In order to protect the natural environment, International environmental law was concluded in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1972. Both China and Japan are maritime powers, and detailed marine environmental protection laws and regulations have been formulated on the basis of international environmental law. This paper makes a comparative analysis on the similarities and differences of marine environmental protection legislation between China and Japan, and it is believed that Japan pays more attention to the protection of the domestic environment，while China has assumed more responsibilities as a big country in the legislation of marine environmental protection.