Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
Selling ships for scrap
Darren Wall * and Michael Tsimplis **
The majority of shipbreaking operations take place in developing countries, under conditions which are dangerous both to the health and safety of the workers and the local population. This paper addresses the legal framework which is in place currently to prevent and minimize ships being scrapped in developing countries as well as exploring the loopholes which shipowners are able to exploit. Suggestions on how to overcome these loopholes are mooted as well as looking to the developments of the law in this area
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Introduction
The export of hazardous wastes is a dangerous trade, regulated by the Basel Convention on the Control of the Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal 1989 (Basel Convention). In the United Kingdom any export of hazardous wastes to a non-OECD1
country is completely banned, by virtue of the EU adoption of the 1995 amendment to the Basel Convention. The applicability of the Basel regime to ships destined for the scrapyard is an issue which has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years. As a result of the impending ban on single-hull ships, the impact of the ISM Code and the economic climate encouraging owners to scrap redundant ships, it is expected that the number of ships requiring recycling will keep rising year on year, fuelling further debate on the environmental consequences of scrapping ships in non-OECD countries.
Most of the scrapping facilities are located in developing countries. This therefore places the shipowner in a quandary: either to dismantle their ships within OECD countries, or to decontaminate the hazardous substances within their ships first. Either way, the costs of shipbreaking will rise significantly. As a result, ways of circumventing the Basel regime have been sought and lacunae in the law have been taken advantage of. This paper is intended to analyse, first, whether the export of ships for shipbreaking falls within the Basel regime and, if so, whether the proposed mechanisms for avoiding the consequences of the ban on exports of hazardous wastes carry any risks. In doing so, it is questioned whether English law would be applicable in any action for damages to
* Research Assistant, Institute of Maritime Law, University of Southampton.
** Lecturer in Law, Institute of Maritime Law, University of Southampton. The authors are grateful to Yvonne Baatz and Bengi Yuceer for their comments and suggestions on an earlier draft of this article.
1. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
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