Research On The Punitive Damages In The Marine Oil Pollution Damage

With the development of the modern shipping industry and the petroleum exploration industry, oil pollution damage is worsening than ever. Attention has been paid to the problem both from international and national perspectives, which promotes the development of compensation law of oil pollution. Nowadays, the fundamental regimes of compensation law of oil pollution are the responsible parties of compensation, the scope of compensation and the limitation of liability. Compensatory damages is widely accepted by academic and practical field so that there is no profound meaning to do further research. However, reconsideration should be given to the ways of compensation due to the continuous marine oil pollution accidents.Obviously, polluters cannot be punished and deterred by the existing legislation.Thus, it’s worthwhile to conduct research in the area of application of punitive damages.Apart from preface and conclusion, this dissertation is divided into three parts as following:The first chapter analyzes the function and the scope of application of punitive damages, pointing out the limitation of compensation system of oil pollution, and discussing the applicable value of punitive damages in marine oil pollution damage from three perspectives, namely social value of law, personality right of environment and teleology of tort law.The second chapter discusses the constitution of applying punitive damages in marine oil pollution damage, comparing the differences between the compensatory damages and punitive damages in the aspects of subjective elements,objective elements and causality area, and analyzing the special requirements of burden of proof of punitive damages.The third chapter explains relevant international conventions,domestic laws and cases, showing the scope of compensation of punitive damages in marine oil pollution damage.Next, it puts forward suggestions of the author on the calculating standard of punitive damages award in marine oil pollution damage based on the lessons of American law and cases. At last, the chapter proposes suggestions on the construction of legal system of punitive damages in the marine oil pollution damage for the purpose of providing useful advice to establish related legal system.