Review article

Increased liability limits for maritime claims adopted

Marija Pospišil Miler ; Pravni fakultet, Rijeka, Hrvatska

Abstract

An Amendment of the 1996 LLMC Protocol to the Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims, 1976 was adopted at the ninety-ninth session of the IMO Legal Committee held in London 16 - 19 April 2012, increasing the global limits of liability related to Article 6(1)(a) and 6(1)(b) of 1976 LLMC by 51 % on the present limits set out in Article 3 of the 1996 LLMC Protocol. Limits set out in Article 7 of LLMC 1976 have remained unchanged. In accordance with the Article 8(8) of the 1996 LLMC Protocol, these amendments shall enter into force on 8 June 2015.
The paper analyses the reasons that have led to the increase of the limits of liability and to the justification of such an increase, taking into account that in only 1.34 % of incidents damages have exceeded current limits of liability established by the 1996 Protocol. It analyses
the legal and economic consequences of the increase of the limits of liability and its immediate impact on other international conventions relying on the global limitation of liability, such as the 2001 Bunker Convention and the 2007 Convention on the Removal of Wrecks. It warns, however, that the tendency leading to excessive limits of liability may cause a loss of interest of states to ratify the 1996 Protocol and thus have a negative impact on the unification of law
in relation to this matter. Therefore, this paper discusses some of the possible solutions that would provide fair compensation for victims, but would not jeopardise the unification efforts and the purpose of the limitation of liability.

Keywords

global limitation of liability; 1996 Protocol to the 1976 Convention on Limitation of Liability; tacit acceptance procedure; maritime claims; compulsory insurance

Hrčak ID:

97333

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/97333

Publication date:

20.12.2012.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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