Giovanna casualty should signal Lebanese reform

ON Sunday, November 1, 1998, Lebanon awoke to a huge fire at sea, not far from the coast bordering the suburbs of Beirut. The tanker Giovanna, flying the Maltese flag and carrying gasoline from Lavera to Beirut, was ablaze.

Rumours quickly spread about the cause of the fire. Some said it was the result of a collision between the tanker and a tramp vessel carrying livestock, which had perished in the seas. Others claimed the tanker had ignited following a premeditated act of pyromania, or by reason of a cigarette negligently discarded by an Armenian fisherman waiting vainly for his prey nearby.

The task of determining the proximate or remote cause of the fire, and of apportioning blame, is best left to the various experts involved in the case. It is important to note, however, the nature of the various actions engendered by the casualty, and their significance in terms of Lebanese law.

Quite apart from the charter party disputes, in the intricacies of which London arbitrators are doubtless currently engrossed, claims for salvage were filed before the Lebanese courts by every party that happened to have a boat sailing or moored in the vicinity that day, and which at the first sight of the flames rushed up to bustle around the tanker, hoping to grab a piece of a potential goldmine.

The Lebanese government was inevitably involved as a claimant. But its claims were limited to the strict reimbursement of expenses and costs incurred, because the Cour de Cassation of Beirut has recently established the unequivocal principle that warships or other vessels owned or operated by the state and dedicated to public service may not claim salvage awards.

A criminal action was also brought by the fisherman who found himself caught in the middle of the flames, and more recently an action has been lodged by the Municipality of Beirut, seeking compensation for oil pollution of Beirut waters. What this casualty in fact did was to bring to light Lebanon's failure to update its laws and statutes in the maritime field and to place itself in line with the rest of the international shipping community.

In the past thirty years, Lebanon has neglected to ratify most of the major international maritime conventions (e.g,. The Brussels Arrest Convention (1952), the Brussels Collision Convention (1952), the Athens Convention on the Carriage of Passengers and their Luggage by Sea (1974), the UN Convention on Conditions for Registration of Ships (1986), the Salvage Convention (1989), and the Protocol to the 1969 Brussels Civil Liability Convention (1992)). Even when ratifying the Hamburg Rules Convention (1978) in 1983, the Lebanese government failed to rescind the Hague-Visby Rules, as per Article 31 of the convention, thereby triggering a long period of uncertainty as to which legal regime was applicable in Lebanon.

The Giovanna casualty may turn out to be a catalyst for change, whereby Lebanon wakes up to the urgent need to thoroughly remodel its maritime laws. It is high time. War can no longer be used as an excuse for inactivity in this area. But nothing has yet been done. Beirut seems to have long forgotten that it used to be called "Berytus Nutrix Legum".