Liability and compensation for oil spills in Maltese waters

Abstract

Environmental issues have had an important impact on the development of law in general, in particular during the latter half of the twentieth century. Malta has been actively participating in multilateral legal instmments long before the environment became the socially important issue that it is today. The following are some to the multilateral legal instrnments relating to sustainable development to which Malta has been a party to over thelast half centu1y: 1954 OILPOL,1 1958 The Convention of the Continental Shelf, 1972 The Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter, 1973 CITES,2 1976 Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean, 1976 The Protocol concerning Cooperation in Combating Pollution of the Mediterranean Sea by Oil and Other Harmful Substances, in Cases of Emergency,1979 BERNE,3 1982 UNCLOS,4 1985 The Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, 1996 Protocol Concerning Protected Areas and Biological Diversity in the Mediterranean, and 1996 The Protocol on the Prevention of Pollution of the Mediterranean Sea by Transbounda1y Movement of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal. The environmental impact, as reflected in the above mentioned Conventions and Protocols, is perhaps the latest addition to a time seasoned admiralty law regime, both at municipal and international law level, whose histo1y is shrouded in antiquity as per Vice-Admiralty Court Act 1863 and Colonial Courts of Admiralty Act 1890 of the Maltese Code. These radicalupheavals in maritime law histmy can be attributed to the impact of environmental awareness that has been brought into the forefront of public attention by legislation dealing with the transportation by sea of polluting substances, predominantly etude oil. As a consequence, legislation dealing with liability and compensation for pollution damage, salvage and general average, ship safety, navigation and oil spill prevention legislation, have been subject to a progressive change reflecting the need to be in line with international obligations with respect to tl1e protection of the marine environment.