The Nairobi International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks in light of existing marine liability regimes

The study presented herein analyses the Nairobi International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks (WRC) in light of existing civil liability regimes relating to the same area of environmental law, namely&semic protection of the marine environment from damages arising from maritime activities. Through presentation and analysis of the most influential and exemplifying civil liability regimes for protection of the marine environment from damages arising from maritime activities, a coherent picture of this diversified body of norms is painted. The rather mechanical process whereby common characteristics of the treaties establishing such regimes provides the reader with descriptive introductions to such civil liability regimes and establishes a light in which the WRC is analysed. The analysis of the WRC in light of existing civil liability regimes enlightens a difference in approach&semic the inclusion of obligations in the WRC to undertake response measures - thus a development where obligations to undertake response measures are included in treaties establishing civil liability regimes. Since the group of treaties within which the WRC falls - treaties concerning protection of the marine environment from ship-source pollution - is uniform, and no treaty but the most recent, the WRC, deviates from this uniformity, the difference in approach is meant to be deliberate and signifies a development within international environmental law in a wider sense. Since protection of the marine environment from damages arising from maritime activities is a particularly well-developed area of international environmental law, it is argued that the developments within this area of law are relevant and of significance for international environmental law generally. Through examples from civil liability regimes relevant to the context within which the WRC exists, this development is exemplified and analysed