Maritime Oil Spills as Threats to Coastal Communities

Rechtsanwalt Dr. Stefan Kirchner, MJI

Coastal communities are particularly dependent on access to the

sea and its natural resources. Often they are the ones who bear the
brunt of massive oil spills. Oil spills are an important threat to the
maritime and coastal environment. But until a few decades ago,
coastal communities were left without much protection when it
come to the damages caused by oil spills. Replacing an older treaty,
the International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution
Damage (CLC) of 1992 entered into force in 1996. The CLC requires
shipowners of oil tankers to have an insurance which covers oil
damages also beyond the liability limits of the 1976 LLMC. Cases
like that of the Exxon Valdez, which caused a major oil spill off the
coast of Alaska in 1989, are today covered by the CLC.
But oil tankers are not the only problem. Bunker fuel, that is, oil
which is used to fuel the ship, or other hydrocarbons can also be
spilled and cause significant damage to the natural environment.
One example is the 2007 oil spill that was caused by the Cosco
Busan in the San Francisco Bay. For such cases the Bunker
Convention (BC), was created, which has many similarities to the
CLC, including an obligation to have an insurance which has to be
confirmed by the flag state administration. Unlike in the case of the
CLC, the obligation under the BC is not limited to the owner of the
vessel but also covers user users, such as charterers. This wider
understanding of who is obliged to have an insurance makes sense
because in this way the BC connects the obligation to the ability to
actually control the vessel, the use of oils etc. The protection offered

under the BC is further widened by going beyond what is commonly

understood as bunker oil and including other hydrocarbons, such as
hydraulical oils, as well, as long as they are used for the operation
or propulsion of the vessel, as well as residues.
What is still missing, due to the (relatively) national legal nature of
drilling operations e.g. in Exclusive Economic Zones, is the is lack of
a similar international obligation regarding drilling operations with
regard to the coastal communities, in particular those in the same
state. The coastal state already has environmental obligations under
the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention but in order to be
truly effective, and to limit at least the economic fallout of events
like that of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a parallel norm on oil
drilling is necessary.

Dr Stefan Kirchner, MJI, is teaching Human Rights at the University of Lapland in

Rovaniemi, Finland, and Law of the Sea at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas,
Lithuania. He is admitted to the bar in Germany and specializes in cases before
the European Court of Human Rights and in Marine Environmental Litigation. This
text is a slightly revised version of a blog post written by the author for rladi.com
in February 2015.