On The Oil Owner’s Liability For Oil Pollution Damage

This paper firstly introduces the happening details and the litigation of the French Erika case on chapter1, and then states the preliminary ruling by the European Court of Justice, the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Paris and the applicability of the Conventions. Since the shipowner had applied to set up the limitation fund and the IPOC FUND had made the payment for the oil pollution damages caused by Erika, the European Court of Justice and the Appeal Court in Paris ruled the TOTAL to undertake oil pollution liabilities directly by applying their Waste law, which opposites the current civil liability conventions.Then this paper discusses that the oil owners deemed as charters are undertaking supplementary liabilities in the subjects of liability according to CLC systems by the introducing of liability subjects for oil pollution constructed by CLC and FUND conventions. Then Chapter2is going to analyze the relationship for applicability between the CLC conventions and domestic laws. Finally based on the historical evolution and background and the legislative choice by the conventions, chapter3emphasizes on pointing out that the subject of liability in the first place for oil pollution should be the shipowner under the CLC systems, rather than the oil companies deemed as cargo owner. It also discusses the enormous impact which the Erika judgment brought to the universal, it applied the domestic environmental law rather than the international conventions would likely forces the oil company facing huge amount of compensations and make the CLC and FUND conventions exist in name only. Additionally, it may cause confusions on applicability of law and subjects of liabilities, and also change the liability basis radically of charter for oil pollution.In the end this paper will make explanation on the expansion of the subjects of civil liability for oil pollution. Then it provides advices to deal with the influences on international shipping industry and also for establishing oil pollution legal system in China as to improve the oil pollution legislation in our country, by taking advantages of the double compensation mechanism constructed by CLC and FUND conventions.