Ensuring compliance with Antarctic environmental protection through inspections: Problems and prospects

Environmental protection occupies an increasingly important place in Antarctic governance, but compliance mechanisms for Antarctic environmental protection have received little attention compared to multilateral environmental agreements. Antarctic inspection is an important tool for ensuring compliance by States Parties. However, it has been shown that inspection is mostly used as a means of information exchange and capacity building, while its monitoring role tends to be undermined. Based on empirical analysis, this paper identifies the outstanding issues in existing inspection practices, and proposes specific measures for improvement. It also explores the possibility of establishing an independent inspection body to complement existing inspections undertaken by Consultative Parties, with a view to fully utilizing its monitoring role as part of compliance mechanisms for the Antarctic environment.