Protecting the Environment with Salvage Law: Risks, Rewards, and the 1989 Salvage Convention

Current marine salvage law often provides only limited incentives for salvors to prevent pollution. In many cases, it also inadequately compensates them for the risks they must assume when they assist a ship that threatens the environment. This Comment analyzes possible solutions to these problems under current salvage law, and then discusses the reforms offered by the 1989 Convention on Salvage. It concludes that current salvage law is inadequate to protect the public from the threat of pollution, and that the Convention on Salvage, if adopted, could greatly improve incentives for marine salvors to protect the environment