ABSTRACT
One of the main diffi culties with IMO’s Guidelines for Places of Refuge is the lack
of any incentive, to any relevant governing body, to grant a place of refuge to a
casualty. Authorities responsible for granting a place of refuge have everything to
lose and nothing to gain. Part of this problem may be resolved by the Wreck
Removal Convention 2007,1 together with the Civil Liability2 and HNS3 Conven -
tions, there will at least be a liability regime to compensate them if things should go
awry. While in the view of some, these regimes may not provide a large enough
fund for a catastrophe they will at least make a generous start and, I suspect, cover
99 per cent of all casualty situations. There will however still be no incentive to
grant a place of refuge – nothing to encourage relevant authorities to do so more
readily. If they were to benefi t materially by granting a place of refuge, they might
well be so encouraged.
