The civil liability regime for ship-supply oil pollution enables national victims of oil spill harm to make monetary claims against domestic and non-domestic tanker owners and, in specific situations, the international oil cargo market. The 1971 Fund Convention offered for the payment of supplementary compensation to those who could not acquire full compensation for oil pollution harm under the 1969 CLC. The Canadian Government’s claim for charges and expenses incurred is presented to, and paid by, the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund. The consolidated text of CLC 1969, as modified by the 1992 Protocol, is referred to as the 1992 Civil Liability Convention.
See: Ibrahima, D. Recovering Harm to the Atmosphere per se Following an Oil Spill: the Shadows and Lights of the Civil Liability and Fund Conventions”, RECIEL, 14-1, 2005, p. 64. The Canadian compensation regime is based on the basic principle that the shipowner is mostly liable for oil pollution brought on by the ship. If the flag state was a celebration to each the 1969 and 1992 CLC the shipowner received in return a certificate certifying that the shipowner had in location insurance coverage covering liabilities beneath both conventions.
First, the Convention sets up an international civil liability scheme operating among the natural or legal persons impacted whose claims for compensation of pollution damage, if not settled otherwise, ought to be submitted to the competent national court of the State exactly where the polluting damage occurred or preventive measures were taken.
Payments of compensation and the administrative expenditures of the 1971 IOPC Fund had been financed by contributions levied on organizations in Fund Convention countries that received crude oil and heavy fuel oil following sea transport. The tanker owner is typically entitled to limit his liability to an quantity which is linked to the tonnage of the tanker causing the pollution.
This section is only applicable to ships flying the flags of a State party to the 1969 CLC (see Annex two). Till 30 May 1996 only one particular Civil Liability Convention was in force: the 1969 CLC delivering limits of liability on a sliding scale starting at SDR 133 per limitation ton up to a maximum of SDR 14 million (about USD 20.two million). Note: In 2008, the text of the Convention was accessible via the Australian Treaties Library on the AustLII World wide web internet site ().
