Lloyd's Open Form (LOF 2010) Revision - More Effective Protection of Marine Environment

The paper deals with the effect of marine environment protection on the autonomous right to salvage incorporated in the Lloyd's Standard Form of Salvage Agreement (Lloyd's Open Form - LOF). The origins of the form go back for more than a hundred years. During that period the form has been revised from time to time. Nowadays, LOF 1995 and LOF 2000 are in use and a new LOF is being prepared, and it is to be published in 2010 (LOF 2010). The most important changes included in the form are related to the 1980 revision - LOF 1980. It was the first time that the right of salvage introduced a long established principle No Cure-No Pay (without useful result there is no right to reward). Further development of the LOF form moved towards better motivation of salvors for prevention of marine environment pollution. Today, the prevention of marine environment pollution is the priority in salvage. The question that causes constant worry to modern salvors is whether the compensation at their disposal is adequate in the case of pollution prevention with regard to their exposure to civil and criminal liability. The fact is that the current remuneration system is not satisfactory and does not sufficiently stimulate the salvors in the protection of the marine environment. Apart from the special award and SCOPIC compensation (Special Compensation P&I Club), salvors only have at their disposal the salvage award as their permanent source of income, and that is traditionally limited by the value of the salved property. Therefore the constant efforts and warnings of The International Salvage Union (ISU) deserve to be praised as they tackle the need to find a new way to motivate salvors for pollution prevention. For now, the fastest and most effective way is to speed up a new revision of LOF which will introduce the Environmental Salvage Awards as an addition to the traditional Salvage award.