At its 35th session, the Legal Committee of IMO1 requested its Secretariat to prepare a report on the legal questions arising out of the Amoco Cadiz incident. In its report of September 1978,2 various aspects of salvage were dealt with extensively. The report raised the questions whether the existing international law of salvage contained in the 1910 Brussels Convention should be revised, and whether a new salvage Convention to supersede the 1910 Convention should be prepared.

Following consideration of the subject of salvage at the CMI3 Assembly in March 1979, where it was concluded that the matter required immediate attention, the CMI offered IMO its cooperation for the study of the subject of salvage and in particular to explore whether new rules should be prepared in order to cover those casualties which may cause a threat of pollution, thereby creating a direct and primary interest of the coastal state in the salvage operations.4 Having again considered the subject of salvage and the offer for cooperation made by the CMI, the Legal Committee of IMO at its 40th session in June 1979 decided that the CMI should be requested to review the private law principles of salvage. This restriction was obvious at the same time for two reasons: first, because it would have