Legal Regime for Environmental Protection of International Watercourses by Emphasis on the Strait of Hormuz in Iran

Subject Areas : Journal of Law and Politics

Seyed Abbas Pourhashemi ¹ , Akram Nemati ² , Flora Heidari ³

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Received: 2015-11-04 Accepted : 2015-11-04 Published : 2013-11-22

Keywords: International watercourse, The Strait of Hormuz, International law of sea, Environmental protection, International Environmental la,

Abstract :

In the view of geopolitics and international law, international watercoursesare very significant in international relations. So, the environment of thesewatercourses should be protected. Using available resources at internationalwatercourses and protecting their environment are important issues ofmodern international law. Watercourses including lakes, rivers, andinternational straits are located among two or more countries. Internationalstraits are important components of international watercourses which arebasically used for commercial and military shipping not only by coastalstates but other countries. Therefore, legal status of the Strait of Hormuz asan international strait is affected by the law of international watercourses.So, in this paper, authors have studied on environmental protection ofinternational watercourses by emphasis on the Strait of Hormuz. By regardto strategic importance of the Strait of Hormuz for Iran, and its geopoliticalrole, in first part of this document, Possibility of blocking the Strait ofHormuz has been deliberated, and in second part, it has discussed aboutenvironmental protection of the Strait of Hormuz by considering soft andhard law.