Ship Oil Pollution Infringement Damages Range

Recent booming of carriage of oil by sea in China has caused the increasing risk of oil spills. The "Tasman Sea" incident that happened off the coast of Tianjin in November 2002 has drawn the attention of the general public. The total claims submitted exceeded 100 million RMB, involving thousands of victims. The 'Tasman Sea" spill raised serious questions about the extent of oil pollution compensation.The Civil Liability Convention (CLC) and the FUND Convention, together forming an integral whole, stand as an advanced model in the international regime of liability and compensation for tanker spills. However, there is no specific law to address the issue under the Chinese law. Claimants have to rely on the ordinary civil liability law, such as the General Principles of Civil Law and Environmental Protection Law of the Sea, which has caused jurisdictional uncertainty and given rise to much controversy.The article starts with torts in civil law, and identifies oil pollution as the tort of environment pollution in specific law of tort. Concerning the characteristics of oil pollution, the author sets the balance between the value of fairness and efficiency as the ultimate goal. The purpose is to maintain the balance between the interests of the pollution victims and those liable shipowners, which is essential to efficient international carriage of oil - a business that is indispensable to the society.Three controversial issues raised in the extent of compensation are addressed, namely cleaning cost, pure economic loss and ocean environment damage.The article discusses the legal nature of compulsory cleaning cost, and proves that cleaning cost shall be identified as civil liability rather than administrative expenses. Through study of the judicial practice of IOPC FUND and the conditions of our country, the author enumerates the specific recoverable expenses of cleaning cost.The article examines the characteristics of pure economic loss in law of tort,and discusses the policy considerations that limit its compensation. Through the case analysis of IOPC FUND and some other countries, the article tries to catalog pure economic loss in those cases. It is proposed that China should follow the compensation practice of IOPC FUND to accept compensation of certain pure economic loss.From the perspective of the theory study of environment law, it is pointed out that the ocean environment compensation shall cover the damage of fishing and ecological resources. It also recommends restitution in integrum as the principle of ocean environment damage compensation.