The HNS treaty prices the risk that hides

The IMO treaty on hazardous and noxious cargo is the legal skeleton of a risk that shipping carried informally: who pays when the dangerous cargo damages. The treaty names the liability, and naming the liability is the beginning of managing it.

The treaty is the risk ledger

For the shipper and carrier, the convention is the memory of the worst accident priced into the system: the fund, the compensation, the cleanup — each clause is the cost of the risk made visible.

The treaty that prices the risk is the one that disciplines the haul.

The operators that read the liability before the haul — not after the incident — are the ones the treaty never touches.