Limitation of liability

The Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims, signed in London on November 19, 1976 (LLMC) and amended by the 1996 Protocol, lets a shipowner cap its debt at an amount computed on the vessel's gross tonnage alone (Article 6), whatever the damage caused. Article 4 lifts the limit only for the shipowner's personal act or omission, committed with intent to cause the loss, or recklessly and with knowledge that such loss would probably result. That threshold is practically unreachable. The arrangement dates from a time when a collision could ruin an honest shipowner, and it made shipping insurable. Applied to submarine cables and pipelines, it produces the opposite of what it intended: the smaller the vessel, the less it owes. Yet the ideal tool for a cut, deliberate or negligent, is precisely the small craft under a flag of convenience with an opaque owner. The regime thus protects the weapon rather than the target. The gap between the tonnage cap and the real cost of a deep-sea repair runs into orders of magnitude, and the operator and its insurer are left without useful recourse.