Legal Study On The Establishment Of A Fund For Compensation For Oil Pollution Damage Of PRC

Currently, China is establishing a fund for compensation for oil pollution damage. The Collection of Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage and the Managerial Measures (the Third Advisory Document), which was drafted jointly by Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Communications, has been come out. This paper studies on the important problems of the fund from a legal angle of view.Firstly, the paper discusses the legal foundation of the fund, and makes clear that oil shippers apportion the duty of oil pollution damage according to the principle of"the beneficiary pays", under which the fund is arranged. Secondly, the paper discusses the premises of the effective operation of the fund. It points out that the implementation of shippers'primary duty of compensation is the premises, and the compulsory insurance of shippers and the limitation of duty of oil pollution are the two significant mechanisms to make sure the fulfillment of shippers'duty.Thirdly, the paper discusses the structure of the fund. After probing into the model of governmental fund and the model of fiduciary fund, and analyzing the relationship among the undertaker, the governor and the victim, it concludes that the fiduciary model is more suitable to the fund for compensation for oil pollution damage.Lastly, according to the above analysis, the paper designs the material mechanism of the fund. It makes clear that the aim of the fund is both for pubic benefit and for private benefit. As to the source of the fund, this paper discusses issues of the object of apportionment, the scope of apportionment and the collector of the fund. As to the managerial structure of the fund, this paper probes into the legal statute of managerial organization and the inner design of it. As to the use of the fund, this paper analyses the application of the fund, the scope and limitation of compensation, the reason for exemption and so on. The paper also gives a deep study of clean-up cost and the compensation for the fishery resource losses in the medium and long term, which have been disputed in both practical and academic field.All the analysis in this paper takes The Collection of Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage and the Managerial Measures (the Third Advisory Document) as an important reference, and after the analysis, gives some advice to it.