4.1 General
The jurisdictional framework for implementing and enforcing the air emission standards is found in the law of the sea. This body of law is currently authoritatively regulated in UNCLOS, which is commonly labelled ‘the Constitution for the Oceans’. The convention is widely ratified world-wide, by 168 contracting parties, including all Northern European SECA States and the European Union.(1) See at www.un.org/depts/los/reference_files/chronological_lists_of_ratifications.htm Its provisions on vessel-source pollution are widely considered to represent customary international law and hence to be binding even for states that are not parties to it. To the extent questions relating to jurisdictional matters of the oceans are not addressed in the convention, the last paragraph of its preamble affirms that “matters not regulated by this Convention continue to be governed by the rules and principles of general international law”.