The Contribution of the International Compensation Regimes to the Protection of the Ocean

Abstract This article discusses another means of protecting the ocean to that of the London Convention regime, which prohibits or restricts the dumping of waste at sea, namely through compensation under the existing liability and compensation regimes relating to the spills of oil and other hazardous and noxious substances. Some main features of the existing liability regimes relating to ship-source spills – namely spills from oil tankers, spills of bunker oil from other ships and releases of other hazardous and noxious substances – are presented and their advantages and weaknesses are discussed.