Study On The Issue Of Compensasion Scope Of Marine Oil Pollution Damage

With the continuous development of the international economy and trade,economic communications among nations are becoming increasingly frequent and offshore oil transport activities have gradually become active as well.Consequently,there is an increasingly high risk of ship pollution accidents resulting from these activities.Marine environmental pollution caused by marine oil pollution has aroused general concern internationally in the last decade.Since the 1960s,in order to fully solve the damage compensation of ship oil spill accidents,The International Maritime Commission and The International Maritime Organization have gradually established a series of ship oil pollution damage compensation systems taking the oil pollution damage international conventions as the main body.Furthermore,with the increasing damage by ship pollution accidents,the contents of the systems are in constant change and improvement.Under the promotion of international conventions,countries also gradually pay more attention to the legislation on marine oil pollution damage compensation of the ship.The key point to solve compensation cases of marine oil pollution damage is to make sure the scope of the marine oil pollution damage compensation.Nevertheless,there are different operations on the cognizance of ship oil pollution damage compensation range in the world.In general,the scope of damage compensation mainly includes sewage disposal cost,cost of taking preventive measures,pure economic loss and marine ecological damage in the marine oil pollution accident.Nonetheless due to different standards of damage compensation among countries' legislation and international conventions,the regulation of marine oil pollution damage compensation scope varies a lot which leads to the confusion of the applicable law when accidents happen.This situation results in the indeterminacy of applicable law when a case is under trial,or the narrow compensation scope,both of which may eventually lead to the dissatisfaction of the oil pollution victims who suffer damages and is unfavorable to the marine ecological environment recovery and protection as well.Therefore,it is significant to unify the legislation of ship oil pollution damage compensation scope worldwide.Owing to the increasing number of marine oil pollution damage accidents in recent years in China,the legislation related to the protection of the marine environment gradually carries more weight.During the 2010-2013,a series of regulations and departmental rules and judicial interpretation have been issued successively by the government to solve the problems of legal regulation of ship pollution damage compensation.Compared with other countries'marine oil pollution damage compensation legal system and the relevant international conventions,it can be found that the regulation of the scope of marine oil pollution damage compensation is relatively conservative in China which in practice is hard to meet the accident victims' damage compensation requirement.Therefore,the scope of marine oil pollution damage compensation should be further expanded in our country.At the same time,it is necessary to establish a standard and framework of the range of marine oil pollution damage which are suitable for China's conditions after fully referring to the relevant national and international conventions and the advanced legislations and practices in order to ensure the victims' legitimate rights and interests and to protect the sustainable development of the marine environment in China.