Ecolex Logo
The gateway to
environmental law
Search results » Literature

Pigovian taxation at the supranational level: Fiscal provisions of the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund

Author
Herber B.P.
Journal/Series
The Journal of Environment & Development | Vol. 6(2); 110 - 122; 13 p.
Date
1997
Source
IUCN (ID: ANA-060802)
Publisher | Place of publication
University of California | San Diego, CA, USA
Language
English
Field of application
International
Subject
Sea
Keyword
Subsidy/incentive Marine resources management Oil pollution
Abstract

The International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund, viewed from the perspective of the public finance economist, encompasses a unique and little known effort to impose the generic features of a Pigovian environmental tax at the international level. The tax is part of an eclectic insurance and fiscal scheme for internalizing the negative externalities of oil pollution in international waters. Its link to the insurance component of the policy format tends to obscure its tax characteristics and to make it politically more acceptable as well. The IOPC Fund regime was established under the umbrella of two international treaties signed in 1969 and 1971 in the wake of the disastrous Torrey Canyon oil spilll in British waters several years earlier. The tax may serve as a prototype for the use of economic incentive instruments in other international environmental problem areas

Other references

Treaty

International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage

Treaty | Multilateral | Brussels |

Keyword: Navigation, Liability/compensation, Oil pollution, Polluter pays principle, Transport/storage

Source: IUCN (ID: TRE-000120)