Volume 60 Issue 2 Summer 2020 & Activism and the Law Symposium Summer 2020 The HNS Convention: Will It Be a Game Changer for China’s Marine Pollution Law? Ruixuan Zhuo Tulane Law School and Shanghai Maritime University Recommended Citation Ruixuan Zhuo, The HNS Convention: Will It Be a Game Changer for China’s Marine Pollution Law?, 60 Nat. Resources J. 207 (2020). Available at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nrj/vol60/iss2/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Natural Resources Journal by an authorized editor of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Ruixuan Zhuo* THE HNS CONVENTION: WILL IT BE A GAME CHANGER FOR CHINA’S MARINE POLLUTION LAW? ABSTRACT This article analyzes the international convention governing marine pollution caused by the shipment of hazardous and noxious substances (“HNS”). It also discusses China’s domestic laws and regulations of HNS marine pollution liability comparing the Chinese approach with norms under the HNS Convention. The author argues that China faces severe HNS pollution issues and proposes solutions to HNS liability and compensation problems. I. INTRODUCTION The International Convention on Liability and Compensation for Damage in Connection with the Carriage of Hazardous and Noxious Substances by Sea (“HNSC”) was adopted by the International Maritime Organization in May 1996.1 In the spring of 2010, the IMO Legal Committee approved a Protocol (“2010 Protocol”) to resolve some major practical difficulties within the HNSC as a means to expedite this international convention’s ratification and implementation.