The international liability funds in the maritime field
The international liability funds in the maritime field

Summary/Abstract: This Paper aims to explore the current system of the international liability funds in the maritime field. Through the systematic economical, legal and political analysis of the current and envisaged international, regional and national liability funds connected to the pollution of the seas, an overview of the function, efficiency and critical considerations of the chosen liability funds will be presented. A comparison between the international system of the compensation for the oil pollution damage (and the pending hazardous and noxious substances compensation model), and that of the United States is necessary, in order to determine a difference in approaches these two systems use to tackle the burning issues of oil (and hazardous and noxious substances) spills. A special consideration will be devoted to the questions of limited or unlimited liability, scope and strength of the Protection and Indemnity insurance and reinsurance market, problems of the channeling of the liability, moral hazard of the financial caps,and the general lack of the liability funds in the maritime field. Finally, an attempt will be made to consolidate the difference in opinions regarding the previously mentioned issues, and to predict the possible routes of changes awaiting the fund compensation systems.

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