If we are talking about Blue Cards, we need to mention The International Convention on Civil Liability, often called the Civil Liability Convention (CLC). CLC is an international maritime convention administered by the International Maritime Organization to ensure adequate compensation for sea pollution by tankers.
The CLC Protocol outlines that the owner of a ship will be held liable for any pollution damage caused by oil that has leaked or been discharged from the ship. As a result of an incident, except as provided in paragraphs 2 and 3 of this Convention, the owners are to be punished.
The main objective of the Blue Card and CLC is to prevent oil spills, which can be caused by oil leaks, residual oil spills from tanker accidents. These spills can have a detrimental impact on the marine ecosystem. CLC aims to make it easy for insurance companies to provide compensation for damages caused by oil spills. We can see the intersection of the Blue Card and CLC here.
The Civil Liability Convention 1969 (CLC 1969) came into force in 1975. It introduced a system to determine the liability of tanker owners for oil pollution damage.
The CLC Protocol, 1992 (CLC 1992) was introduced in 1996. It is an updated version of CLC 1969 and the Protocol increased the amounts of compensation under CLC. The owner of a tanker that is registered in a CLC contracting State tankers which carries over 2,000 tonnes of persistent oil as bulk cargo is required to maintain insurance or other financial security.
Persistent oils are the ones that persists and do not dissipate easily. As the money required for spill cleaning and containment of the persistent oils will be too much, the liability conventions like CLC applies to the persistent oils only according to IMO.
This money required can be in the form of a bank guarantee or a certificate from an international compensation fund.
The insurance or financial security must cover the owner's liability for pollution damage under CLC. The limits of the liability should be applied as prescribed in Article V, paragraph 1, fixing the sum of the coverage.
This means that the owner is liable even where there is no fault on his part. The owner can normally limit his liability to an amount determined by the size of his ship. The owner of a tanker registered in a CLC Contracting State (which carries more than 2000 tonnes of persistent oil) is required to obtain insurance coverage for their CLC liabilities. This insurance is evidenced by a document known as Blue Card. The P&I insurer issues the certificate to the Flag State registry, who then provides the tanker's registered owner with a CLC Certificate. Tankers flying CLC contracting state flags must carry a Blue Card on board attesting the insurance coverage. The regulation regarding this situation can be found in Article VII paragraph 1 of CLC (1992).
Sources:
https://treaties.un.org/pages/showDetails.aspx?objid=08000002801083db
https://gmcg.global/importance-of-blue-cards-and-clc-in-marine-insurance-guidance-for-ship-owners/
https://iopcfunds.org/uploads/tx_iopcpublications/Text_of_Conventions_e_01.pdf
https://www.turkpandi.com/assets/page_docs/press/sirkuler/Temmuz 2018ing.pdf
https://www.classnk.or.jp/hp/pdf/activities/statutory/mlc/flag/skn/SKN5313.pdf
https://britanniapandi.com/services/trading-certificates/
https://www.imo.org/en/About/Conventions/Pages/International-Convention-on-Civil-Liability-for-Oil-Pollution-Damage-(CLC).aspx#:~:text=The%20Civil%20Liability%20Convention%20was,casualties%20involving%20oil%2Dcarrying%20ships
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