Faure, Michael; Hui, Wang --- "Economic Analysis of Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage in China" [2007] ELECD 246; in Eger, Thomas; Faure, Michael; Naigen, Zhang (eds), "Economic Analysis of Law in China" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007)

Book Title: Economic Analysis of Law in China

Editor(s): Eger, Thomas; Faure, Michael; Naigen, Zhang

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847200365

Section: Chapter 11

Section Title: Economic Analysis of Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage in China

Author(s): Faure, Michael; Hui, Wang

Number of pages: 33

Extract:

11. Economic analysis of
compensation for oil pollution
damage in China
Michael Faure and Wang Hui

1. INTRODUCTION

In recent years, almost all continents have suffered severely from damage as
a result of oil spills. Many of the very well-known ones occurred in Europe.
Accidents with the Torrey Canyon, Amoco Cadiz and many others are still
remembered even though they occurred in the 1960s and 1970s. As a result
of the Torrey Canyon incident, The International Convention on the Civil
Liability for Oil Pollution Damage of 1969 was adopted, together with a
fund convention in 1971.1 The goals of these international arrangements
were to guarantee some compensation to victims of oil pollution incidents.
However, ever new incidents, inter alia with the Amoco Cadiz showed that
the amount available in the existing regime were not sufficient to guarantee
an effective compensation to victims. Therefore, the legal regime has
changed continually. The most recent change took place in 2003, when a
supplementary fund was established to provide a third tier of compensa-
tion in addition to the liability convention and the existing fund. This sup-
plementary fund was promulgated after the Erica caused enormous
pollution off the coast of Brittany in 1999 and the Prestige did the same in
2002, off the coast of Gallicia.
The problem of oil pollution is not at all limited to Europe or to the US
(which also adopted an Oil Pollution Act in 1990 after being severely
affected in 1989 by the Exxon Valdez ...