ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the intersection between such public law issues and the Wreck Removal Convention (WRC) 2007 provisions creating liabilities that will affect shipowners and their insurers. Art 10 of the WRC 2007 follows the pattern of other international organisation liability conventions by creating a strict liability regime, although by 2007 this was hardly controversial as it reflected most State laws on wreck removal. The wreck of the Prestige raised issues of proportionality in the context of the Fund Convention 1992. Ships may become wrecks in environmentally sensitive areas in any part of the world, but the ability to deal with them may vary depending on how remote those areas are from developed world facilities and resources. As the Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage and Fund regime apply to the cost of clean-up of tanker bunkers, the Bunkers Convention 2001 will be relevant to the removal of bunkers from the wrecks of other categories of ships.
