Two recent oil spills, from the Erika and the more important from the Prestige, have provoked a very strong trend for strengthening the environmental security in order to prevent marine pollution by hydrocarbons in cases of future similar accidents. In this Chapter, I study the preventive measures adopted by Spain after the Prestige accident as well as those bilateral measures agreed with France, the previous victim of the Erika accident. I also study the regional measures adopted by the European Community and the measures that the International Maritime Organization is adopting at a world scale, all of them for preventing marine pollution by hydrocarbons from vessels.... [Leer más...]