ABSTRACT
China has successively joined the Civil Liability Convention 1969 (CLC 1969), the Civil Liability Convention 1992 (CLC 1992) and the Bunker Convention 2001 to deal with compensation for ship-source oil pollution damage. Relevant domestic laws and regulations have been enacted to implement provisions of conventions, such as the Marine Environmental Protection Law of the PRC, Regulations on Administration of Prevention and Control of Ship-source Pollution to the Marine Environment and Measures for the Implementation of Civil Liability Insurance for VesselInduced Oil Pollution Damage of the PRC (the ‘Measures’). These laws and regulations have explicitly regulated the scope of vessels insured for oil pollution, the insured amount, insurance institutions, the issuing of oil pollution certificates and so on. In the practice of insurance for oil pollution, underwriters of civil liability insurance for oil pollution damage include mutual insurance institutions (P&I Clubs) and commercial insurance companies. Civil liability insurance for ocean-going ship-source oil pollution damage is usually included in the policy of protection and indemnity insurance for ships, and in this policy the amount of compensation limit is set higher than the requirements of CLC 1992 or the Measures; as concerns civil liability insurance for oil pollution damage from coastal and inland ships, it is underwritten by commercial insurance companies similarly to ocean-going vessels, or covered by separately purchased civil liability insurance for ship-source oil or bunker oil pollution damage.
