Maritime Liability in Collisions, Pollution & Cargo Damage: Convention, Defences, Jurisdiction

Module: MARLAW 4012 — Advanced Issues in Maritime Law

Level: Final Year Undergraduate (or PG Diploma)
Credit Weighting: 20 credits
Assessment Type: Coursework (Essay / Legal Opinion) — Assignment 2
Weight in Module: 40 %
Word Count: 3,500 ±10% (excluding footnotes, bibliography, annexes)
Submission Deadline: 30 April 2025, 23:59 BST (via the VLE)
Return Date: Within 4 weeks
Feedback: Written individual feedback plus generic class feedback

Learning Outcomes Assessed

This assignment is designed to assess students’ ability to:

1. Demonstrate deep understanding of liability regimes in maritime law (contractual, tort, strict liability, environmental)

2. Critically compare relevant international treaties and UK domestic statutes in maritime claims

3. Apply legal principles to complex factual situations and propose reasoned solutions

4. Evaluate jurisdiction, choice of law, limitation and defences in maritime claims

5. Conduct up-to-date legal research, marshal authority, structure coherent argumentation, and use correct legal referencing

Scenario / Task

You are acting as legal adviser to Seascape Carriers Ltd, a UK-incorporated shipping company. Their vessel MV Polaris (UK-flagged, London management) was en route from Singapore to Felixstowe when, in the English Channel, heavy seas and a sudden storm caused the vessel to deviate. In the deviation, the vessel collided with a small offshore installation (owned by a French company operating under a UK licence), resulting in:

• damage to the installation’s structure,

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• pollution of nearby waters (oil leakage),

• partial loss / damage to part of the cargo,

• and a personal injury claim by one of the installation’s maintenance crew.

Seascape’s bill of lading contains a clause incorporating the Hague-Visby Rules (by English law). The vessel holds P&I cover. The installation is regulated under UK safety / environmental regimes despite foreign ownership.

You are asked to prepare a legal opinion (essay format), addressed to Seascape’s board, which should:

1. Identify and classify the possible claims (contract, tort, environmental, strict liability) arising from the facts.

2. Examine and analyse the relevant international conventions (e.g. Hague-Visby, CLC, MARPOL, LLMC, Bunkers Convention, Limitation Conventions), and applicable UK domestic law.

3. Evaluate defenses and limitation of liability (force majeure, contributory negligence, statute / treaty-based limits).

4. Discuss jurisdictional, forum and choice-of-law issues and how they might affect claim strategy.

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5. Advise on risk-management, potential settlement / arbitration, and insurance strategies.

6. Support your opinion with recent case law (from 2019 onwards) and doctrinal commentary.

Use legal citation (footnotes or endnotes) and include a complete bibliography. You may include short annexes (timeline, statute extracts) — these do not count toward the word limit.

Marking Rubric / Assessment Criteria

Marks will be allocated using the following criteria (approximate weightings):

Grade boundaries follow standard departmental scale (e.g. First ≥ 70%, Upper Second 60–69%, etc.). Plagiarism in any form is unacceptable and will be penalised.

References

Chen, L. (2023). Maritime rights, obligations, and liabilities of intelligent ships. Journal of International Maritime Law, 29(2), 110–130. https://doi.org/10.1080/25725084.2023.2264566 Taylor & Francis Online

Peter, M. M. (2025). Tortious liability for autonomous marine vehicle collisions. Marine Policy & Law Review, (advance online). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2025.500xxx ScienceDirect

Safari, F. (2024). Challenges for the application of liability limitation in marine pollution damage. Law Research Magazine, 12(1), 45–68. Law Research Magazine

Wu, X. (2025). Effectiveness of the polluter-pays principle under the CLC. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 189, Article 114947. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2024.114947