A Study On The Scope Of Compensation For Marine Environmental Damage

The industrialization of the human society has caused environmental problems. With the rapid development of the shipping industry and the growth of oil import in our country, marine pollution problem has become increasingly serious. For the compensation of marine pollution damage, the rules regard to the compensation of personal casualty and property damage are comparatively comprehensive and easy to operate.But the law system related to the marine environmental damage is still in vacancy, which results in the disputes on its scope of compensation and its application in judicial practice. To improve the damage compensation legal system of marine environmental pollution, the author has discussed the related problems existing in practice.The article is divided into four chapters apart from the introduction and conclusion. Chapter 1 defines the confusing concepts (Marine pollution damage, Marine natural resource damage, Marine ecological damage) which caused dispute in practical and theoretical area. Simultaneously, this chapter defines the research scope of the marine environmental damage based on the study of the environmental right theory and the public trust theory.Chapter 2 discusses the problems raised from legislation and judicial practice. In legislation, the laws and regulations in China are not comprehensive. In practice, there are different views on the definition of the capacity loss, the fishery loss and the recovery cost.In chapter 3 the author makes some comparison between the current regulations in our country and the relevant international legislations related to the scope of compensation for ocean environmental damages, which mainly focuses on four aspects: the international convention, the international documents, the foreign legislation, and the typical cases. By comparing and analyzing the characteristics of these rules, the author comes up with some sparkling ideas in order to perfect our legislation.In chapter 4, the author puts forward the suggestions on the scope of compensation for marine environmental damage based on the trends of international legal system and rules. The scope of compensation for marine environmental damage includes the marine ecosystem service function impairment, the repair costs of the marine environment and the cost of assessment. In particular, the author discusses about the further improvement of the capacity loss, the fishery loss and the recovery cost.