Abstract: After years of preparation, the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) adopted a General Framework for the Establishment of CCAMLR Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) with the aim to provide a legal framework for the deliberation by members on the establishment of MPAs in the Convention Area in the absence of identification of conservation needs and systematic argumentation from the aspect of science, leaving behind the ambiguity with and even disputes over many critical scientific and legal issues. Due to the limited time for consideration and the intervention of political elements, such a General Framework was adopted with problems in its legal structure, scientific basis and management, monitoring, review process and many other aspects, which lead to a series of divergent ideas and views in the discussions over the specific proposals on the establishment of MPAs. Therefore, the urgent priority for CCAMLR should be creating a fair and transparent condition and atmosphere to facilitate the optimization of the regime on the establishment of MPAs from legal, science and technical respect, with due respect to the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (the Convention) and the current legal regime and practice, and on the basis of scientific consensus, thus to provide members with a viable foundation for the MPAs deliberations.

Key words: CCAMLR, Antarctic, MPAs, General Framework, problems, analysis