A study on civil liability regime and compulsory insurance for passenger carriage by sea in reference with MIMA proposal

Abstract

This paper will review the current civil liability regime adopted by Malaysia for passenger carriage by sea, in reference with MIMA proposal in 2011 for a new liability regime and compulsory insurance, because of the following statement of needs: increasing number of maritime accidents, insufficient limit of claims, negative Government impression, smaller operators' risk of insolvency, settlement delay, and pending of large number of insurance cases. The designation of the research was to provide evidence to support this paper in four ways: by means of survey, interview, information collecting, and consultation. The analysis of data collected has yielded the results which can be divided into four main sections: the background information on recent maritime accidents, the passenger insurance coverage by domestic passenger carriers, the awareness of maritime passengers in insurance protection, and the satisfaction level with compensation among victims. The analysis also evaluated arguments for and against the introduction of a no-fault scheme with a focused discussion on the requirement of sufficient compensation of liability in context of alternative arguments supporting the introduction of a no-fault scheme.