Places of Refuge

The need for specific legal arrangements governing ships in distress and places of refuge is one of the most topical problems in both public and private maritime law. The headline grabbing shipping disasters involving the loss of the Erika (1999) and the Prestige (2002) attracted the attention of the IMO, the Comité Maritime International, the European Union, national maritime authorities around the globe and the maritime industry in general. Ultimately the impact of pollution on local economies