Antarctic Treaties Act, 1996 (Act No. 60 of 1996)RegulationsAntarctic Treaties Regulations, 2021Chapter 3 - Liability arising from Environmental Emergencies12. Liability |
| (1) | Any authorised operator operating in or located within the Antarctic Treaty area that fails to take prompt and reasonable response action to environmental emergencies arising from its activities, shall be liable to pay the costs of response action taken by the Republic and any other person or State who took the required response action. |
| (2) | When a South African government operator should have taken response action but failed to do so, and no response action was taken by any other country, the government operator shall be liable to pay the costs of the response action which should have been undertaken. Such money shall be paid directly into the Fund as detailed in Article 12 of Annex 6 to the Protocol. |
| (3) | When a non-governmental authorised operator should have taken response action but failed to do so, and no response action was taken by any other person, the non-governmental authorised operator shall be liable to pay an amount of money that reflects the costs of the response action that should have been taken. Such money is to be paid directly to the Fund as detailed in Article 12 of Annex 6 to the Protocol. |
| (4) | Liability for any environmental emergency in the Antarctic Treaty area shall be strict liability. |
| (5) | When an environmental emergency arises from the activities of two or more operators, they shall be jointly and severally liable, except that an operator which establishes that only part of the environmental emergency resulted from its activities, shall be liable in respect of that part only. |