Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
TRENDS IN MARITIME ENVIRONMENTAL IMPAIRMENT LIABILITY
Peter Wetterstein*
The article deals with the recent trends in maritime environmental impairment liability. Civil liability questions concerning oil pollution are discussed on the basis of the CLC 1969 and the FC 1971 together with the amendment Protocols of 1992. As regards liability for hazardous substances other than oil, interest is focused on the current HNS work. Of special interest are (1) the right to compensation for pure economic losses that may affect, e.g., fishermen, hoteliers, restaurateurs etc. as a result of environmental impairment, and (2) the right to compensation for damage to natural resources, including costs of restoration or replacement.
A. Introduction
The increasing seaborne transport of oil and other hazardous substances (e.g., chemicals, gases) constitutes a growing pollution risk to the world’s seas and oceans.1 We have already witnessed some serious accidents, e.g., the grounding of the tanker Amoco Cadiz in 1978, which resulted in one of the largest oil spills in history.2 Also other substances than oil have shown to be harmful.3 Spills and dis-
* Professor of Civil Law with Jurisprudence, Department of Law, Abo Akademi University, Turku/Åbo, Finland. The article is based on a paper which the writer delivered at an international conference for maritime lawyers and economists from universities around the Baltic Sea from 30 November to 1 December 1992 on board the m/s Kalypso.
1. Oil and oil products represent around 38% by volume of total seaborne trade. Hazardous cargoes account for a further 10—15%. O. Grapow, “HNS—the Case for Shared Liability”, Fairplay, 11 July 1991, p. 30.
2. When the Amoco Cadiz sank off the French coast in 1978 more than 220,000 tons of crude oil were released into the sea and approximately 180 miles of coastline in one of the most important tourist and fishing regions in France were badly polluted. The clean-up took more than six months and involved equipment and resources from all over the country. The disaster has had severe effects on the environment, the economy, and the people of Brittany, and has resulted in numerous lawsuits. For the litigation see Matter of Oil Spill by the Amoco Cadiz (1992) 954 F 2d 1279. Cf. The Torrey Canyon’s grounding off the south coast of England in 1967, the Exxon Valdez accident off the coast of Alaska in 1989 and the recent grounding of the tanker Braer in the Shetland Islands (1993). However, accidents account for only 21% of the total oil pollution of seas and oceans, while operational dumping (tanker operation, bilge and fuel oil) is responsible for 72% of the total. Furthermore, tankers are responsible for 15.2% of dumping, non-tankers for 84.8%. See European Parliament: Report on the Environmental Damage Caused by Oil Spills from Ship: Europe Environment, Document Supplement to Europe Environment No. 396—20 October 1992, p. 4.
3. E.g., a total of 468 people were killed when the freighter Grandcamp caught fire and exploded in April 1947 while being loaded with ammonium nitrate in the port of Texas City. The accident also caused considerable material damage. See “The Safe Transport of Dangerous, Hazardous and Harmful Cargoes by Sea” (1990) 25 European Transport Law, p. 779. It may be mentioned that large quantities of substances other than oil (both packaged and in bulk) are regularly washed up on European coasts. Furthermore, a relatively high proportion of recent shipping accidents in the North Sea involved ships carrying dangerous chemical substances; see European Parliament: Report on the Environmental Damage Caused by Oil Spills from Ships, supra, fn. 2, p. 5.
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