Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
THE ENACTMENT OF THE 1989 SALVAGE CONVENTION IN ENGLISH LAW: POLICY ISSUES
1. Introduction
(a) The 1989 Convention
The International Convention on Salvage was agreed at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London in April 1989.1 Throughout the negotiations, the United Kingdom delegation was strongly supportive of the various drafts of the Convention and it can be assumed that the Government will be under some pressure to ratify it fairly quickly. The purpose of this paper is not so much to analyse the substantive provisions of the 1989 Convention,2 but to canvass some of the specific issues of policy that arise when considering if, and how, the Convention will be enacted in England. Those issues concern both the form of any enacting provision and the possible reservations allowed by the Convention itself.
Like all international Conventions, the 1989 Salvage Convention contains much that was the result of compromise and it is always possible to suggest improvements after the event. Nevertheless, it is the writer’s opinion that it provides a reasonably clear and comprehensive legal code to last into the next century. The 1989 Convention updates the widely accepted 1910 Salvage Convention, while at the same time borrowing principles accepted by the market in Lloyd’s Standard Form of Salvage Agreement (LOF) 1980.3 The shipping and insurance industries will form their own judgments as to the form and commercial effects of the new Convention, although it has to be admitted that the main motivation for the revisions was the desire to prevent disasters such as those to the Amoco Cadiz and Exxon Valdez. It is submitted that it is strongly in the interests of maritime safety, and of the environment, that the Convention be ratified and enacted by the United Kingdom as soon as possible.
(b) The main changes to English law
Although most aspects of the Convention will be familiar to maritime law practitioners, particularly those used to dealing with LOF 1980, there are some provisions that will be novel—at least in general maritime law. The main changes to law and practice that will be apparent to an English lawyer if and when the Convention is enacted are as follows.
1. See LEG/Conf. 7/27, 2 May 1989. The text is reproduced in [1990] LMCLQ 54.
2. This has been done elsewhere. See, e.g., N. J. J. Gaskell, “The International Convention on Salvage 1989” (1989) 4 IJECL 268; D. J. L. Watkins, “The Salvage Convention 1989—Who Pays?” [1989] LMCLQ 416; G. Brice, “The new Salvage Convention: green seas and grey areas”, [1990] LMCLQ 32. This Comment will assume a basic knowledge of the Convention provisions.
3. At the time of writing, LOF 1990 has not yet been finalized.
4. Art. 1(b) and (c) taken together will certainly narrow the effect of decisions such as The Gas Float Whitton No. 2 [1897] A.C. 337. They should certainly cover the floating concert hall that was recently proposed for London’s Docklands: see The Independent, 16 May 1990.
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