Developing New Approaches To Formulating Marine Pollution Management Policy

In technical approaches to policy making, an "optimal" policy is sought through balancing of competing objectives, often with the aid of formal models. By contrast, the political process may achieve a balance among competing interests only after protracted adjudicatory conflict, and decision makers may not make explicit use of information which would be considered essential to the technical approaches. This article summarizes recent efforts to develop technical decision aids for marine pollution management. Oil spill risk analysis models and efforts to develop comprehensive multimedium waste management strategies are highlighted. The momentum of recent years, as a result of new legislation and court decisions, lies clearly in the direction of broadening the scope of considerations in decisions about activities with the potential to pollute the marine environment. At the same time, the courts have consistently placed limits on the extent to which the strict balancing approach may substitute for the traditional discretionary judgment of the decision maker.