POLICY AND PRACTICE REVIEWS article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Pollution
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1678620
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in Marine Environmental Protection: Challenges, Solutions and Perspectives Volume IIView all 39 articles
Emerging Developments in China's Ship-induced Oil Pollution Damage Liability Regime: A Perspective from the Revised Draft of China's Maritime Law
Provisionally accepted
- China University of Political Science and Law, Changping District, China
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This article examines China's evolving legal framework for ship-induced oil pollution damage liability system, focusing on the 2024 Draft Amendment to the Maritime Law. Historically, the development of this system in China has been achieved through accession to international conventions, domestic legislative transformation, and the improvement of supporting systems. However, fragmented rules and outdated liability limits hindered effective compensation. DAML introduces a dedicated chapter on oil pollution damage, establishing strict liability for shipowners, defining compensation scope, and mandating an "Insurance and Fund" dual safeguard system. It further clarifies joint liability for multi-ship spills and conflict-of-law rules favoring the lex loci damni. The study argues that this revision bridges gaps between international standards and domestic law while addressing judicial inconsistencies. In order to refine this system, this article conducts an analysis in conjunction with DAML revision text and puts forward optimization suggestions from four perspectives: improving the legal system, providing case law guidance, enhancing government supervision, and perfecting supporting legal safeguards.
Keywords: China's Maritime Law, Ship-induced Oil Pollution Damage, Marine environment protection, Marine Pollution Governance, legal liability
Received: 03 Aug 2025; Accepted: 04 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ha, Wei and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Haoguang Li, China University of Political Science and Law, Changping District, China
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