Abstract

In the last century the world experienced some major oil spills of the time with catastrophic effects to marine environment. Responding to such unfortunate events, among other things, enacted liability and compensation conventions to ensure timely and adequate compensation to victims of oil pollution. Even so, the application of such conventions raised some questions on whether such liability conventions promote environmental protection. This paper examined the role of oil pollution liability conventions in the protection of marine environment through compensation and challenges facing the conventions in the process of application in relevant oil pollution incidents. The authors started by drawing attention to the role played by oil in world economy and effects of oil pollution to marine environment; outlined the international legal regime for oil pollution liability and examined selected oil pollution incidents for reflections on the application of the conventions to reveal some challenges faced by implementation of oil pollution conventions.. In the last part, the paper studies the role of played by liability conventions in the protection of marine environment; challenges arising there from. The paper then suggested among other things review of relevant provisions of the conventions and uniform application of the convention to improve the status quo.