Henry H. Willis

Maritime Terrorism: Risk and Liability

This book examines terrorism liability and risk issues connected with two general types of maritime scenarios - terrorist attacks on containerized shipping and terrorist attacks on passenger ships. The book investigates underlying vulnerabilities, threats and potential consequences, and combines this data to create a picture of the relative risks of different terrorism scenarios. The book discusses key concepts, ambiguities, and legal authorities that would be appropriate in ascertaining civil liability for maritime terrorist acts. It addresses third party (commercial) defendants, particularly. The book offers insights into the nature of maritime terrorism risk and also the methods in which government might respond to that risk through the civil justice system. It combines the exploration of liability and risk in a single study.

Evaluating the Viability of 100 Per Cent Container Inspection at America’s Ports

This chapter presented a cost-benefit analysis of 100 per cent scanning of sea containers that are coming into US ports. The mode uses cost estimates associated with equipment acquisition, operations and maintenance, inspector pay and the delay in delivery of goods. The benefits of the policy are the expected averted costs for preventing a terrorist attack.. The analysis does not consider the costs of allocating space for the scanning equipment and inspection stations at ports, nor the benefits due to increased interception of illegal or misrepresented goods likely to occur from the imposition of 100 per cent scanning. The chapter found the following conclusions: (1) adopting a policy of 100 per cent scanning with current technology is not viable because of restriction on land and personnel: (2) this is a ripe area for future work because complete scanning would most likely deter terrorist and smugglers; (3) the base policy assumed that 5 per cent of incoming containers were selected for random scanning; and (4) the port area for scanning and inspection was critical driver of a policy’s viability.