Research On Liability Subject Of Damage In Connection With The Carriage Of Hazardous And Noxious Substances By Sea

One of the major challenges facing mankind today is how to avoid causing pollution to the marine environment in the process of exploiting and utilizing the marine resources.In the field of international maritime law,a series of international conventions on liability for compensation of damage caused by ship pollution have been established.After years of judicial practice,the application of these conventions plays an indispensable role in protecting the legitimate rights and interests of the victims,controlling pollution and restoring the marine environment.In recent years,China has set up a series of laws and regulations on liability of compensation of ship oil pollution damage,and established a two-tier compensation system.Compared with the liability laws of ship oil pollution damage,China has no special legislation on the liability law of pollution damage of hazardous and noxious substances by sea,and current laws and regulations related are difficult to apply to the damage cases of hazardous and noxious substances.This thesis focuses on the regulations of liability subject of damage liability of hazardous and noxious substances by sea.The main problems of the study include the scope and the identification of the liability subject for damage liability of hazardous and noxious substances by sea under conventions and Chinese domestic laws related,the identification of the liability subject under the special situations including pollution damage caused by ship collision,the difficulty of identification of liability subject of single-vessel company and the solution methods.Based on the analysis and comparison to the relevant provisions of conventions and Chinese domestic laws,it is found that China has not defined the scope of the liability subject.Although the ship owner has been defined as the liability subject of damage liability of ship pollution,the definition of the scope of ship owner is not set up.There are legislation discrepancies among different laws about ship charterer and ship operator under the scope of ship owner or not.Regarding ‘Maritime Law revision recommendations’,there are deep analysis of the thesis about the relevant contents of the liability subject and found the problems.The improvement suggestions to the problems are raised including add the definition and the identification standards of the ship owner;the bareboat charterer as the liability subject shall be jointly and severally liable with the ship owner for the pollution damage of ship oil and hazardous and noxious substances;suggestion for identification of liability subject of pollution damage caused by ship collision of mutual negligence.These suggestions will support for well realizing timely and effective compensation for victims,balancing the interests of liability subject and improving litigation efficiency.