Liability of shipowners and classification societies for environmental damage and unsafe working conditions at recycling yards

• Published date: 01 November 2022
• Author: Carola Glinski
• Date: 01 November 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12455

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Liability of shipowners and classification societies for

environmental damage and unsafe working conditions at

recycling yards

Carola Glinski

Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen,

South Campus, Copenhagen, Denmark

Correspondence

Carola Glinski, Faculty of Law, University of

Copenhagen, South Campus, Karen Blixens

Plads 16, 2300 Copenhagen, Denmark.

Email: carola.glinski@jur.ku.dk

Abstract

This article deals with two liability issues that are highly relevant for value chain

responsibility in the maritime sector, in particular for safe and environmentally sound

recycling of ships: liability of shipowners and ship managers for unsafe downstream

value chains for end-of-life ships and liability of classification societies in their role

under the Ship Recycling Regulation. After an introduction to the current regime of

ship recycling and its shortcomings, the article first elaborates on recent develop-

ments in value chain responsibility before it presents liability as an important regula-

tory tool. It then analyses relevant recent case law, including by the Court of Justice

of the European Union and by national courts in France, Germany and the

United Kingdom, showing that liability risks for shipowners and classification organi-

zations have increased significantly, which may have a positive impact on environ-

mentally sound and safe ship recycling. The article concludes, however, that a clear

legislative framework for liability would be preferable to avoid uncertainty and

national differences.

1|INTRODUCTION

Ship recycling is part of a global value chain where European ship-

owners use recycling yards abroad with poor recycling conditions,

which cause large-scale environmental degradation and numerous

accidents of workers. The regulatory problem involved is that those

yards are out of reach of the public law of those countries where the

recycled ships originate from. Thus, their only way of regulating lies in

the regulation of the downstream value chain.

Indeed, there is a legal trend to impose value chain responsibility

on transnational economic actors, including maritime actors, and to

address global sustainability issues, namely, environmental degrada-

tion and working conditions abroad. Besides the public (international)

law codification of substantive and procedural value chain obligations,

tort liability of economic actors for damages caused in value chains

plays an important role.

Value chain responsibility has been prominently pursued by public

international instruments such as the United Nations (UN) Guiding

Principles for Business and Human Rights

1

and the Guidelines for

Multinational Enterprises of the Organisation for Economic Co-

operation and Development (OECD).

2

The UN Guiding Principles in

their third pillar on ‘access to remedy’highlight the requirement for

1

UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, ‘Guiding Principles on Business and

Human Rights’(2011) <https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/publications/

guidingprinciplesbusinesshr_en.pdf> (UN Guiding Principles).

2

OECD, ‘Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises’(2011) <https://www.oecd.org/daf/inv/

mne/48004323.pdf>; OECD, ‘Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct’

(2018) <http://mneguidelines.oecd.org/OECD-Due-Diligence-Guidance-for-Responsible-

Business-Conduct.pdf>.

Received: 28 September 2021 Accepted: 21 June 2022

DOI: 10.1111/reel.12455

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any

medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

© 2022 The Author. Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.

468 RECIEL. 2022;31:468–482.

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