The 1989 Salvage Convention and the protection of the environment - should the actual compromise continue?

• Author: Oana Ad?sc?li?ei
• Position: Constanta Maritime University, Romania, oana_adascalitei@yahoo.com.
• Pages: 64-73

The 1989 Salvage Convention and the protection

of the environment – should the actual compromise continue?

Assistant professor Oana ADSCLIEI1

Abstract

The salvage la w r egime is mainly set forth in the 1989 Salvage Convention tha t is

complemented by a ser ies of private initiatives of the salvage industry. The most discussed

issue from the point of view of amending the a ctual interna tional regula tion is whether the

salvage operations are in fact able to protect the environment. The salvage industry ha s

initiated proposals in ord er to amend the 1989 Salvage Convention. In this context, it is

important to bear in mind that no other internationa l mar itime salvage convention ha s

previously taken into considera tion the problem of the protection of the environment. F rom

this perspective the a ctual regulation represents a fundamental change. Alongside with

traditiona l subjects of salvage, protectio n of the environment was recognized by the 1989

Salvage Convention not as a n independent subject but related to the salvage of the ship and

its carg oes. Two articles, na mely Article 13 (b) which refers to an “enhanced award for the

salvor” and respectively, Article 14 deemed as “a safety net” were special designed to

encoura ge the salvor to intervene in circumstances where damages to environment occur s.

The Salvage Industry has advanced a proposal for the Convention’s revision meant to reflect

in a more adequa te way the importance of the salvage services’ contribution to the

environmental protection. It is often reminded that this Convention is a result of the so called

“Montreal Compromise” agreed by the Comite Maritime International in 1981, which has

bala nced the interests of all actors involved in the maritime salvage. Starting from this

aspect, the purpose of the hereby paper is to analyze the Convention’s text parallel to

proposa ls for its revision.

Keywords: envinronmental salvage; damage to the environment; the sa fety net; SCOPIC

clause; the 1989 salvage convention.

JEL Classification: K 32; K 33

1. Introduction

The actual legal provisions relating to salvage were set out in the 1989

Salvage Convention, being the direct resultant of marine pollution casualties with a

huge impact on environment such as Amoco Cadiz or Torey Canyon2. The basis of

the Convention is represented by “Montreal Compromise”, a package of carefully

negotiated measures, by means of which ship owners and cargo owners have

accepted to increase their liability in order to prevent pollution3. This solution was

1 Oana Adscliei - Constanta Maritime University, Romania, oana_adascalitei@yahoo.com.

2 Hurst, Hugh, Amending the Salvage Convention 1989 – The International Group of P&I Clubs’ view,

in „Comite Maritime International Yearbook” 2010 Annuaire, p. 500.

3 Khosla, Kiran, Salvage Convention review – Salvors’ proposals for environmental salvage a war d, in

„Comite Maritime International Yearbook” 2013 Annuaire, p. 259.