Study On The Jurisdiction Of Compensation For Oil Pollution Damage From Ships

How to manage the compensation for ship oil leakage is one of themost important issues in the practice of theories concerning marinelitigation affairs. It is related to the maintenance of national sovereignty,the claims of success, the dignity of the country, and the protection ofnational economic interest. So all of the countries in the world haveattached great importance to and vied for the right to manage thecompensation for oil leakage pollution. At the same time, due to thehomogeneity of domestic and international legislation on ship oilpollution damage compensation litigation, The conflicts on this matterinevitably occur. How to correctly understand the ship oil pollutiondamages is related to the legal definition and related theoretical problemsin compensation litigation jurisdiction, and how to control the judicialpractice of dealing with conflicts of claim for compensation in ship oilpollution damages has a great significance for the maintenance of thelegitimate rights and interests of both Chinese and foreign parties. In viewof the marine oil pollution damages compensation litigation jurisdictionconcerning with foreigness, specialty and complexity, In the lawsuit, theissue of the arrest of ships and the procedure of limitation of liabilitywere involved.So the author uses four chapters to carry on the further analysis of the establishment of jurisdiction, and does a positive study onthe conflict of coordination.The first chapter of this paper uses time as the main line. First, thispaper introduces the litigation jurisdiction of ship oil pollution damagecompensation and its importance. Then it describes the InternationalConventional jurisdictional basis before the introduction of the traditionaloil pollution compensation convention and its dilemma of responsing toship oil pollution damages. This dilemma directly led to the oil pollutionconvention that promulgated in1969. The legislations of many countriesare paying more and more attention to oil pollution cases. Moderninternational regulations for oil pollution damage from ship is claimed bythe courts of places where were damaged, where the accident happened,where the jurisdiction of preventive measures were taken and where thedefendants were. Of course, due to the limitation of the Convention itself,there are still leaks in the law and conflict between laws. So there will belike some sorts of the situation that jurisdiction cannot effect in Chaptertwo and three.The second chapter provides the solution to the problem how tocompensate for oil pollution damage from ships when ships are arrested.One of the features of maritime cases is involving ship arresting. Therewas once a dispute that should the court arresting the ship has thejurisdiction for entities parts in maritime cases. But in the end, international convention gave it limited substantive jurisdiction. Theconstraints include the principle of inconvenient court and exclusivejurisdiction. In the third chapter, the author put forward and analyzesinnovatively ship oil pollution damage compensation litigationjurisdiction that it’s not exclusive jurisdiction therefore we can use thebasis of jurisdiction of arrest of ships.The third chapter is the detailed analysis of the jurisdiction of thecompensation for the oil pollution damage under the limitation of theliability under the existing system of International Convention. The shipoil pollution damage claim is restrictive debt, so the ship has the right toapply to the court for the limitation of liability after the accident or afterthe proceedings and the constitution of limitation fund. Procedure ofprosecution, application procedures for limitation of liability, and theestablishment procedure of a limitation fund are closely related. Thischapter concludes the relationship among these three above. According tothe provisions of international conventions, the oil pollution is dividedinto the cargo oil pollution and fuel oil pollution, and according to theprocedure of limitation of liability the author discusses the problem ofjurisdiction over the claim.Based on the above analysis, the fourth chapter reflect on ourcountry’s problem and it’s reason and the jurisdiction coincidence forgiving some advice to coordinating the jurisdiction coincidence.