To Basel or Not to Basel: Holding Ship Owners Liable Under Current International Law for Harm Caused by Expsure to Asbestos During Ship Recycling

This thesis examines whether shipowners can be held liable under current international law for harm caused by exposure to asbestos during ship recycling. After analysing three possible international conventions, this thesis concludes that it is legally possible to successfully enable attribution of liability to ship owners under the Basel Convention. It provides a justification for attributing liability, provides a generally applicable international law definition of the term ‘ship’, provides methods to identify when a ship becomes waste in any given scenario, and demonstrates how the State of Export can be identified when enforcing the Basel Convention.