Responder Immunity
Not long after specialized tank ships were developed, enabling the carriage of large quantities of oil and petroleum products, groundings, collisions, and other casualties started causing significant oil spills. In those early days, there was no financial incentive to clean up such spills. To the extent that there was a response, it was often by Good Samaritans, a term derived from a parable found in the Bible at Luke 10:25-37 about a stranger from Samaria who, with no thought of reward, came to the aid of an injured robbery victim in Judah.
Salvage & Recovery: Treasure and Artifacts
The recent dispute between Odyssey Marine Exploration and the Kingdom of Spain over the treasure and artifacts Odyssey recovered from the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes has recently been given considerable coverage in the popular press as well as in the maritime press. This has probably reinforced the belief of some people that marine salvage, by definition, is the recovery of sunken treasure. Actually, of course, that is only a small component of marine salvage. It has nonetheless…
The Bisso Doctrine
The Bisso Doctrine takes its name from the 1955 U.S. Supreme Court case, Bisso v. Inland Waterways Corp., in which it was established in a majority opinion of the Court that exculpatory clauses in towing contracts are invalid as a matter of public policy. That decision has had serious impact on the United States towing industry, and has affected decisions on whether to make U.S. choice of law and forum applicable to towing contracts where there were other options. It nonetheless remains the law of the land.
Salvage Law: Limitation of Shipowner’s Liability
In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon casualty there have been a number of proposals put before Congress for new legislation or amendments to existing legislation affecting vessel owners and operators. Many of these relate to liability for damages sustained as a result of the casualty or the oil spill that followed. Perhaps the oldest legislation to which amendment and / or appeal is being sought is a statute passed in 1851 to provide vessel owners with limited liability in respect claims brought against them in certain circumstances involving, amongst other things, marine casualties.
