The changing parameters of compensation for ship-source pollution damage

Abstract

The International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage 1969 [CLC 1969], the International Convention on the Establishment of an International Fund for Oil Pollution Damage 1971 [Fund Convention 1971], and their amending protocols of 1992, have, for a number of years, provided a largely effective framework for compensation for shipsource oil pollution damage. CLC 1969/1992 imposes strict but limited liability on a ship owner for damage caused by a spill of persistent oil from a tanker carrying persistent oil as cargo. The definition of ship has been slightly widened in the 1992 Civil Liability Convention Protocol. The shipowner's liability is subject to a number of exceptions including war and natural phenomenon of an exceptional, inevitable and irresistible nature . The imposition of liability in CLC 1969 and 1992 is backed up by a system of compulsory insurance which also provides for a right of direct action against the person providing security. The current general capping of shipowner's liability in CLC 1992 is set at 59.7 million units of account. The shipowner's liability is complemented by liability imposed on the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds [IOPC] [that is, 1971 and 1992] in terms of the Fund Convention 1971 and the Fund Convention 1992, to which oil receivers in member States contribute. The current maximum liability of the IOPC Fund 1992 is 135 million units of account which can in certain instances rise to 200 million units of account; the limits contained in CLC 1992 and the Fund Convention 1992 were raised in October 2000 by the tacit amendment procedure contained in the Conventions. The Fund Convention 1971 will be cease to be in force on 24 May 2002; as of 1 December 2001 the number of states parties to the 1992 Fund Convention was seventy-four.