Research On Limitation Of Liability For Oil Pollution Damage Of Ships

The limitation of liability for oil pollution damage of ships refers to the maximum amount of damages that the owner or operator of the ship must bear when oil pollution damage occurs.The issue of follow-up compensation for the "Sanchi" oil spill in the East China Sea in January 2018 has caused widespread concern at home and abroad.Due to the type of oil mainly involved in the case,the "International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage,1992" is not applicable in this case,and the maritime liability restrictions stipulated in China's "Marine Law" may be applied.According to our "Marine Law",China as the victim of the "Sanchi" case will only receive very low compensation.The limitation of liability for oil pollution damage of ships is the focus of the "Sanchi" case.This article intends through analysis into the limitation of liability for oil pollution damage to explore and improve China's ship oil pollution damage liability system,raise the liability limit,establish a double compensation mechanism,and maintain the legal rights and interests of China in such cases,so as to provide applicable laws for China's dealing with similar cases.The article consists of four parts.The first part is "Overview of Limitation of Liability for Oil Pollution Damage of Ships".This part first briefly describes the concept of the liability restriction system for oil pollution damage of ships,Secondly,this part introduces the emergence and development of the liability system for oil pollution damage of ships,mainly reflects in the passage and continuous revision of the Convention on Civil Liability and the Fund Convention.In addition,this part analyzes the necessity of the existence of the system in four aspects in detail,including ensuring the stable development of the shipping industry,reducing the burden on the shipowners,and contributing to the development of the oil pollution insurance industry and encouraging maritime rescue.Later,the applicable conditions of the liability restriction system are introduced,including two conditions that the accident was not due to shipowner's "actual fault or privity",and the shipowner should establish a limitation of liability fund equivalent to the total number of the limits of liability.The second part is "The Relevant International Convention and Major National legislation On the Limitation of Liability for Oil Pollution Damage of Ships".This section first introduces the existing international conventions on the liability regime for oil pollutiondamage of ships in the international community,including the Civil Liability Convention,the Fund Convention,the Bunker Convention and the HNS Convention.Secondly,this part introduces the provisions on the liability limitation of oil pollution damage in major national legislation,including the relevant contents in the legislation of the United Kingdom,the United States and Canada.Finally,it briefly describes the limitation of liability for oil pollution damage of ships in China,including the conventions China has joined in,China's current legal provisions and the revised draft for comments of the Maritime Law promulgated in 2018.The third part is "The Limitation of Liability for Oil Pollution Damage in The Legal Applications of 'Sanchi'".This part discusses the legal application of "Sanchi" itself in detail,including why it does not apply to the Civil Liability Convention,the Fund Convention and the Bunker Convention,and detailed introduces the HNS Convention,which can theoretically regulate the "Sanchi",and the reasons why it is not practical.The fourth part is "The Insufficiency of China's Limitation of Liability for Oil Pollution Damage".First,this part analyzes the problems of China exposed by "Sanchi" in four aspects,including the lack of special legislation on the limitation of liability for non-persistent oil pollution damage of ships,the low limit of maritime liability,the imperfect scale of China's fund and the lack of accession to the Fund Convention.The fifth part is "Solutions of Improving China's Limitation of Liability for Oil Pollution Damage".This section analyzes solutions to the above problems,including adding special legislation on non-persistent oil pollution damage of ships in domestic law,formulating the non-persistent oil pollution liability limit,modify the maritime liability limit,completing China's fund.What's more,it analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of joining the Fund Convention and the HNS Convention.From the perspective of the "Sanchi" case,this paper analyzes the concept,necessity and applicable conditions of liability limitation for oil pollution damage of ships in detail,and analyzes "Civil Liability Convention","Funds Convention","HNS Convention","Bunker Convention" in depth,compares the differences between international conventions and the provisions of the laws of the United Kingdom,the United States,Canada and China concerning the liability limitation system for oil pollution damage of ships and its supporting fund system,and presents relevant data in intuitive graphical forms to strengthen the comparison,make it reference for improving the system of liability limitation for oil pollutiondamage in China.It provides a comprehensive analysis and discussion on the legal application of "Sanchi" itself and the problems that China has exposed in this case as well as possible solutions,and provides suggestions for the establishment and improvement of the liability system for ship oil pollution damage in the future.The research in this paper finds that China's current system of liability limitation for oil pollution damage is not perfect.There is no provision in the legislation for the limitation of liability for non-persistent oil damages.The limitation of liability for maritime claims is relatively low.The system of Ship-Source Pollution Funds is not perfect,but joining the "Funds Convention","HNS Convention" is not in line with the actual situation in China.Therefore,China needs to legislate to improve the relevant provisions on liability restrictions,learn from foreign advanced experience,and accelerate the pace of building China's Ship-Source Pollution Funds.