Insuring cleaner oceans: the economics of oil pollution prevention

The current system of controlling oil spills involves a complex relationship of international, federal and state law, which has not proven to be very effective. The multiple layers of regulation often leave shipowners unsure of the laws facing them. Furthemore, nations have had difficulty enforcing these legal requirements. This thesis deals with the role marine insurance can play within the existing system of legislation to provide a strong preventative influence that is simple and cost-effective to enforce. In principle, insurance has two ways of enforcing higher safety standards and limiting the risk of an accident occurring. The first is through the use of insurance premiums that are based on the level of care taken by the insured. This means that a person engaging in riskier behavior faces a higher insurance premium, because their actions increase the probability of an accident occurring. The second method, available to the insurer, is collectively known as cancellation provisions or underwriting clauses. These are clauses written into an insurance contract that invalidates the agreement when certain conditions are not met by the insured The problem has been that obtaining information about the behavior of an insured party requires monitoring and that incurs a cost to the insurer. The application of these principles proves to be a more complicated matter. The modern marine insurance industry is a complicated system of multiple contracts, through different insurers, that covers the many facets of oil transportation. Their business practices have resulted in policy packages that cross the neat bounds of individual, specific insurance coverage. This paper shows that insurance can improve safety standards in three general areas -crew training, hull and equipment construction and maintenance, and routing schemes and exclusionary zones. With crew, hull and equipment, underwriting clauses can be used to ensure that minimum standards are met by the insured. Premiums can then be structured to reflect the additional care taken by the insured above and beyond these minimum standards. Routing schemes are traffic flow systems applied to congested waterways, such as the entrance to New York harbor. Using natural obstacles or manmade dividers, ships are separated into two lanes of opposing traffic, similar to a road. Exclusionary zones are marine areas designated off limits to tanker traffic either because of a sensitive ecosystem or because local knowledge is required of the region to ensure safe navigation. Underwriting clauses can be used to nullify an insurance contract when a tanker is not in compliance with established exclusionary zones or routing schemes.

Provincetown Harbor, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, 1841 (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper map entitled: Chart of Cape Cod Harbor and the adjacent coast of Provincetown and Truro, reduced from the original of James D. Graham and published under the patronage of the Boston Marine Insurance Companies by I.W.P. Lewis ; surveyed and projected by J.D. Graham ; W.J. Stone, sc.. It was published in 1841. Scale 1:21,120. Covers Cape Cod from Truro to Provincetown including Provincetown Harbor, Massachusetts. The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the Massachusetts State Plane Coordinate System, Mainland Zone (in Feet) (Fipszone 2001). All map collar and inset information is also available as part of the raster image, including any inset maps, profiles, statistical tables, directories, text, illustrations, or other information associated with the principal map. This map is a nautical chart showing coastal features such as harbors, light houses, ocean bottom types, points, inlets, coves, wharves, high and low tide marks, and more. Depths are shown by soundings and contours. Shows also land features: buildings with names of landowners, roads, drainage, and more. Relief is shown by hachures. This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps of Massachusetts from the Harvard Map Collection. These maps typically portray both natural and manmade features. The selection represents a range of regions, originators, ground condition dates (1755-1922), scales, and purposes. The digitized selection includes maps of: the state, Massachusetts counties, town surveys, coastal features, real property, parks, cemeteries, railroads, roads, public works projects, etc.

Lloyd's register of shipping.

"Founded 1760. Re-constituted 1834. United with the Underwriters' registry for iron vessels in 1885."

Lloyd's register of British and foreign shipping.

Vols. for 1890-1891- issued in parts.

Annual report.

Issued in 2 pt.: Pt. I, Fire and marine insurance; pt. II, Life, casualty and assessment insurance.

Thermometrical observations as connected with navigation : the utility ... in ascertaining the relative heat of the sea-water ... to discover the passage of a vessel through the Gulf Stream and from deep water into soundings ... to avoid danger ... /

Mode of access: Internet.

Wages of interned merchant seamen, disability and other benefits to merchant seamen. Hearings before the Committee on the merchant marine and fisheries, House of representatives, Seventy-eighth Congress, second session, on H. R. 3262, a bill to amend section 2 (B) of Public law 17, Seventy-eighth Congress, relating to functions of War shipping administration, and for other purposes; and H. R. 2652, a bill to amend section 222 (E) of subtitle--Insurance of title II of the Merchant marine act, 1936, as amended. December 9, 1943, and February 10, 1944

Mode of access: Internet.

National service life insurance benefits : hearing before a subcommittee of the Committee on Finance, United States Senate, Seventy-seventh Congress, first session on H.R. 6219, an act to extend the provisions of section 602 (a) of the National service life insurance act of 1940 to personnel on active duty in the army, navy, Marine corps, and Coast guard and S. 2136, a bill to grant automatic national service life insurance benefits to dependents of recently deceased members of the armed services of the United States and to extend the time limit for filing application for said insurance. December 16, 1941.

Bennett Champ Clark, chairman of subcommittee.

Insurance : The Laws of Australia

Insurance - the laws of Australia provides insurance practitioners, insurance companies and students with a principles-based, practical guide to insurance law in Australia. It provides comprehensive coverage and analysis of common law principles relating to, and the statutory regulation of, insurance contracts and the operation of an insurance business. The common law and statutory provisions are dealt within the context of marine, life and general insurance.

Sustaining the Economic Rent of Oceanic Resources: The Case of Marine Protected Areas

This paper investigates economic aspects of marine protected areas (MPAs) that are closely related to the underlying marine biota. Many marine scientists recognize that enough is now known about the marine biology for the scientific siting of MPAs to protect marine environments that create associated economic values. Marine scientists have identified several objectives of MPAs. These include protection of genetic and biodiversity, increase in population levels and structures (e.g., age, size, fecundity), enrichment of ecosystems by promoting species interactions, and the protection of continental shelf landscapes from invasive human actions. Indeed, some marine scientists and fisheries economists view MPAs as an 'insurance policy' against over-fishing and other human uses of oceanic resources that have damaged so many of the world's fisheries. The economic analysis presented here pays attention to optimal zoning, policies to maintain sustainable economic rents, and the optimal policing of MPAs.

Best's insurance reports.

"Best's insurance reports ... upon American and foreign joint-stock companies, American mutual companies, inter-insurance associations, and individual underwriting organizations."

The insurance industry. Hearings before the Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-fifth Congress, second session, pursuant to S. Res. 231 ...

Continuous paging.

Annual report of the insurance commissioner.

Title varies slightly.

A chronological list of books and pamphlets, relating to the doctrine of chances and the rate of mortality, annuities, reversions, marine and fire insurances, and life-assurance; with the titles of the several parliamentary reports connected with friendly societies, and of publications relating to particular life-assurance offices.

Published also in the author's A familiar explanation of the nature, advantages, and importance of assurance upon lives ... London, 1842. 19 1/2 cm. p. 183-221.

The Insurance year book...

Until 1891 the Insurance year book was published in 1 vol. From 1891 to 1922 it was published in 2 vols., one devoted to "Life and miscellaneous" (1905-1922 "Life, casualty and miscellaneous") and the other to "Fire and marine." 1923- published in 3 vols., the first devoted to "Life insurance," the second to "Casualty and miscellaneous" and the third to "Fire and marine."