One of the curious features of marine pollution law is its way of standing orthodoxy on its head. However sweet the phrase “the polluter pays” may sound to EU officials, environmentalists and other earnestly concerned parties, when it comes to ship-source pollution affecting maritime and littoral resources, the consensus is almost exactly the opposite; at least, as regards direct claims by those affected, progressive thought demands - oddly enough - that the real polluter should not pay. Instead, the movement is towards “channelling” liability through a given party with little or no say in the matter: notably, the owners of the ship from which the pollution came. Take the scheme of the Civil Liability Convention (CLC) 19922 for oil cargo pollution, widely regarded as a model for future and more general developments in pollution law.3 Under this scheme, the owners of the vessel concerned are to be liable without proof of fault4 (and carry compulsory P & I cover against such liability),5 subject to a few sparse and tightly drawn defences.6 In return, they benefit from a limitation of liability;7 beyond that point a separate fund takes over, fed from the industry involved.8 Conversely, and importantly, the ship’s liability to pay without question even if she is not at fault is balanced by provisions aimed at exonerating anybody else connected with her, such as crew, pilots, charterers and so on, even if they are to blame.9 The only way such people can be made to pay is indirectly, in so far as the shipowner (or, in the case of catastrophe, the supplementary fund) can bring recourse proceedings against them based on some independent contractual or other right they may have.10 At present this scheme applies only to pollution by oil and bunker fuel;11 elsewhere, the general common law and statutory scheme of liability applies - at least for the moment. But if and when the HNS Convention 2010 comes into force, essentially the same regime will govern pollution through almost any substance likely to cause more than trivial harm.12