난파물제거협약안에 대한 연구

Abstract

As an organization under the Charter of the United Nations, the International Maritime Organization(IMO) is the organization competent of the United Nations to adopt maritime regulations and standards dealing with safety of navigation and the protection of the marine environment from international shipping activities.

Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 (UNCLOS 1982) and the International Convention relating to Intervention on the High Seas in Case of Oil Pollution Casualties (Intervention Convention 1969), as amended by the Protocol of 1973 thereto, they define that the coastal States may limitedly take measures within the exclusive economic zone area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea to prevent, mitigate or eliminate grave and imminent danger to their coastal area or related interests from any maritime casualty which may reasonably be expected to result in major harmful consequences.

Yet, as a ship's size becomes increasingly larger and her speed becomes faster, there have been much more wrecks than expected within the exclusive economic zone, which pose threats to the safety of navigation. IMO's Legal Committee considered how to remove this kind of abandoned wreck but which is not grave and imminent danger to coastal states and their coastal areas and related interests within the exclusive economic zone.

To this end, the IMO's Legal Committee took steps to develop the Convention on wreck removal to remove wreck effectively, which haven't been applied by the UNCLOS 1982, Intervention Convention 1969 and its Protocol 1973. The impractical articles regarding the draft Convention on Wreck Removal have long been discussed, since it prepared the draft text at 73rd session of the Legal Committee for the first time.

In the wake of a series of meetings, most of articles under the draft Convention on Wreck Removal prepared and is to be reviewed once again at the upcoming 91st session of the Legal Committee to be held in April, 2006 and the Diplomatic Conference to be held in October, 2006 to adopt the Convention on Wreck Removal.

In the event this newly adopted Convention enters into force, it would fill an existing gap in the present Maritime Law Regime and would assist coastal States in resolving a difficult problem to deal with wreck to ensure the safety of navigation and to prevent marine pollution.

The primary purposes of this study aim to introduce a main contents of the draft Convention on Wreck Removal, to review the deliberated matters of it during sessions of the Legal Committee, to suggest what my findings analyzes, and to propose how Republic of Korea should deal with the newly-adopted Convention on Wreck Removal after it enters into force.

The main contents of the draft Convention on Wreck Removal contain the process from a time to consider a ship as a wreck under this Convention, reporting wreck, determination of hazard, locating wreck, marking of wreck. and measures to facilitate the removal of wreck.

Furthermore, this Convention establishes the relations among the Affected States, registered owner, State of the ship's registry and nearest coastal States, and introduces the compulsory insurance system to secure financial security for wreck removal.

This study reviewed those adoption backgrounds and the main contents of the Intervention Convention 1969 and its Protocol 1973, the Salvage Convention 1989 and the International Civil Liability Conventions like CLC, Nuclear, HNS or Bunker Convention and made comparative analysis between these Conventions and the draft Convention on Wreck Removal.

Then this study again analyzed the main issues of the draft Convention on Wreck Removal and the relevant provisions of national maritime law. By this analysis, it revealed main legal provisions that need to be introduced in order to ratify the Convention.

Considering 25 European countries including the nations(the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, and Germany) which have the exclusive economic zone of low water depth in the north-western European sea will be quite ratify this Convention on Wreck Removal within the realms of possibility. It is expected that the draft Convention on Wreck Removal will entry into force early after being adopted at the diplomatic conference in 2006.

Due to the reason that Korean merchant ships are to be directly influenced by the draft Convention on Wreck Removal, It is necessary that the Korean government preview the contents of the Convention prior to adopting it into the contents of the national maritime law regime.

There seems to be two ways to proceed : adopting some contents of the draft Convention on Wreck Removal into the national law regime, or legalizing a single enactment. In the case of adopting the first method, it is proper for "the Marine Traffic Safety Act" to be accepted, which coincides with the aim of the draft Convention on Wreck Removal targeting safety of navigation.

Yet, it is necessary to deeply consider that "the Marine Traffic Safety Act" covers ships only within the territorial sea and internal waters, the newly proposed national law regime should include the contents of the draft Convention on Wreck Removal that includes the exclusive economic zone.

It should also be reviewed to introduce the compulsory insurance system to "the Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage Guarantee Act", which established the similar system as this draft Convention. Japan also amended its "Law on Liability for Oil Pollution Damage" which is similar to the "the Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage Guarantee Act" in Republic of Korea, to cover claims for bunker pollution and expenditures for wreck removal on 14, April 2004.

In conclusion, it is necessary to prepare the counter-measures actively considering the influence on ship's owners and the Korean government at 91st session of Legal Committee to be held in April, 2006.