Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly

Professor Francis D Rose

Document

Legal and practical aspects of salvage in the United States

Martin Davies *

Salvage in the United States is a characteristically American mix of big government and small private enterprise, with little room for the traditional Lloyd’s Open Form commercial salvage found elsewhere in the world. This article gives an overview of salvage operations in the US and their legal context, including a short description of the legal issues raised by the active treasure salvage industry. Although the US is party to the Salvage Convention 1989, it plays a surprisingly small part in salvage disputes in that country, for reasons explained in the article.

I. INTRODUCTION

Traditional “no cure, no pay” salvage of marine property in peril is in slow but steady decline throughout the world. There were 255 Lloyd’s Open Form (LOF) salvage cases in 1980 but only 107 in 2007.1 Professional salvors have begun to focus on pollution prevention, which forms an increasingly large proportion of their work.2 In 2007, the International Salvage Union (ISU) requested its Subcommittee on Environmental Salvage to form a Working Group to draft a new edition of LOF focusing on environmental salvage awards and it called on the Comité Maritime International (CMI) to begin drafting a revised Salvage Convention with particular emphasis on provisions concerned with environmental salvage.3

To some extent, the changing role of professional salvors reflects an increase in the involvement of government bodies in salvage operations, particularly in cases where there is a threat of environmental pollution. That trend is already far advanced in the United States, where the US Coast Guard plays the principal role in handling vessel casualties that involve actual or threatened pollution, with professional salvors often relegated to a

* Admiralty Law Institute Professor of Maritime Law, Tulane Law School; Director, Tulane Maritime Law Center. The author is grateful for the very helpful comments of the anonymous referee.

1. Lloyd’s Worldwide, LOF Statistics , (available at http://www.lloyds.com/Lloyds_Worldwide/Lloyds_Agents/Salvage_Arbitration_Branch/LOF_facts_And_figures.htm). There were only 80 LOF salvage awards in 2006: ibid .

2. The ISU Pollution Prevention Survey 2008 shows that ISU members recovered over 1.1 million tonnes of pollutants during salvage operations in 2007, an increase of over 94% on the previous year. International Salvage Union, “ISU Pollution Prevention Survey 2008”, Salvage World , April 2008, 3 (available at http://www.marinesalvage.com/salvage_world/ISU%20Salvage%20World%20April%202008.pdf ).

3. International Salvage Union, “Salvors to Press Case for Environmental Awards”, Salvage World , December 2007, 1; International Salvage Union, “ISU Puts Forward Plan for a New Lloyd’s Form”, Salvage World , September 2007, 1.

LEGAL AND PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF SALVAGE IN THE US

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