The international regime of compensation wasestablished by two international treaties elaborated under theauspices of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), namelythe 1969 Civil Liability Convention and the 1971 Fund Convention.These Conventions were revised by Protocols in 1992, and therevised Conventions, known as the 1992 Conventions, haveeffectively replaced the original ones. The 1992 Civil LiabilityConvention governs the liability of the shipowner, whereas the 1992Fund Convention provides supplementary compensation through theInternational Oil Pollution Compensation Fund (1992), financed bya levy on oil receipts in member nations. The total amount ofcompensation under the 1992 Conventions is US$178 million perincident but will be increased to US$269 million from 1 November2003. This paper describes briefly the scope and application of theConventions with reference to specific incidents involving the IOPCFunds, focusing on developments over the past two years. In view ofthe experience of recent major incidents, the 1992 Fund has set up aWorking Group to hold an exchange of views concerning the needfor and possibilities of improving the international compensationregime established by the 1992 Conventions. As a first step, theWorking Group prepared a draft Protocol establishing an optionalthird tier of compensation by means of a SupplementaryCompensation Fund which would provide additional compensationover and above that available under the 1992 Conventions. The draftProtocol will be considered by a Diplomatic Conference to be heldunder the auspices of the IMO in May 2003. Certain issues relatingto environmental damage have been considered. The Working Groupcontinues its review of the 1992 Conventions and will examine anumber of issues, inter alia, shipowners' liability.
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