The history of international environmental law - Introduction to International Environmental Law - page 27

in the ratifi cation of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, Part XII of
which relates to the protection of the marine environment. Prior to this and
until the early 1970s, protection of the marine environment focused primarily
on oil pollution from tankers: the fi rst such convention was the 1954
International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil, 8
followed by the Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage 9 and
the International Convention Relating to Intervention on the High Seas in
Cases of Oil Pollution Casualties. 10
This most recent Convention was motivated largely by the fi rst major oil
disaster, in 1967, when the Torrey Canyon tanker grounded off the Cornish
coast in England. Around 170 million litres of oil were spilled into the sea.
The efforts to disperse the oil with chemicals resulted in serious environmen-
tal damage and the British fi nally decided to bomb the tanker in order to burn
the oil on the high seas. The Torrey Canyon case also saw the fi rst negotiations
relating to liability for damages for oil spills in the light of the catastrophic
pollution damage caused to the Cornish coast.
Figure 2.1 Oil tanker catastrophes have often given rise to a pressure to regulate.
(Photo © ITOPF)