Travaux Preparatoires of the Convention on Salvage 1989.pdf

THE TRAVAUX PREPARATOIRES OF THE 1989 SALVAGE CONVENTION 185Article 6 - Paragraph 1day remuneration for salvage services. Account should also be taken <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> cases inwhich ships and even land-based units could be used in non-pr<strong>of</strong>essional salvage andthat form <strong>of</strong> salvage should not be discouraged. A comprehensive convention shouldhave to contemplate <strong>the</strong>se cases. No convention could be applied as mandatory inevery salvage situation. (LEG 52/9, paragraphs 48 and 49).International ConferenceCommittee <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Whole 20 April 1989Document LEG/CONF.7/3Article 4-Salvage contracts 87Document LEG/CONF.7/VR.80-82The Chairman. Ladies and gentlemen, <strong>the</strong> meeting is called to order. Would youplease take your seats, ladies and gentlemen. Well, I am very happy as I see that <strong>the</strong>majority <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> delegations could manage to come this morning to <strong>the</strong> meeting. I have<strong>the</strong> impression we are at least a quorum. We start this morning with <strong>the</strong> discussion <strong>of</strong>those articles which are part <strong>of</strong> package No. 3. We will go through <strong>the</strong> remainingarticles in <strong>the</strong> order as contained in <strong>the</strong> basic draft. The first article is article 4. Onarticle 4, paragraph 1, we will take that paragraph by paragraph. On article 4,paragraph 1 we have a proposal <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Federal Republic <strong>of</strong> Germany and I would liketo ask <strong>the</strong> delegation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Federal Republic <strong>of</strong> Germany to introduce <strong>the</strong> document,WP/14. You will find <strong>the</strong> proposal in WP/14 88 . Federal Republic <strong>of</strong> Germany.Federal Republic <strong>of</strong> Germany. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With respect to article4, let me start differently. In our general observations in conference documentLEG/CONF.7/10, under paragraph 3 on page 3, we have submitted <strong>the</strong> observationthat it has always been held with respect to <strong>the</strong> <strong>Convention</strong> <strong>of</strong> 1910 that it implicitlyadmits non-contractual or spontaneous salvage as a typical case coming within <strong>the</strong>general scope <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> uniform law <strong>of</strong> salvage at sea, even though <strong>the</strong>re are cases whereno contract exists between <strong>the</strong> salvor and <strong>the</strong> owner <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> salved vessel might beexceptional, but <strong>the</strong>re are some provisions in <strong>the</strong> earlier <strong>Convention</strong> as well as in <strong>the</strong>new draft convention from which it can be inferred that non-contractual salvageshould be covered, and we felt it might be useful to have at any place <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> convention<strong>the</strong> more general provision which indicates explicitly that <strong>the</strong> convention’s rules(87) The text <strong>of</strong> paragraph 1 <strong>of</strong> this Article is that approved by <strong>the</strong> Legal Committee at its 58 thSession (Document LEG 58/12-Annex 2).(88) Document LEG/CONF.7/CW/WP.14Submission by <strong>the</strong> Federal Republic <strong>of</strong> GermanyArticle 4 para.1 should read:“This <strong>Convention</strong> shall apply to any contractual as well as non-contractual salvage operationssave to <strong>the</strong> extent that <strong>the</strong> contract o<strong>the</strong>rwise provides expressly or by implication.”Even though salvage operations are usually covered by standard form contracts for salvage, asalvor deserves to benefit from <strong>the</strong> <strong>Convention</strong> irrespective <strong>of</strong> whe<strong>the</strong>r he was acting under anagreed contract (e.g. salvage operations carried out in compliance with a public law duty under<strong>the</strong> control <strong>of</strong> public authorities – cf. Article 3 para. 2 Draft <strong>Convention</strong>). For this and o<strong>the</strong>rreasons as set out in document LEG/CONF.7/10, p. 3, Article 4 para. 1 <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Convention</strong>should explicitly spell out that <strong>the</strong> <strong>Convention</strong> shall apply to contract salvage as well as to noncontractualsalvage operations.