Abstract Oil began to replace coal as main energy early in the 20th Century. And then, large amount of oil has been transported by sea among countries, which results in pollution damage when oil spills during the transportation. As the rapid development of the carriage of oil by sea, the serious damage of oil pollution from ships pushed international community to formulate the compensation law of oil pollution damage from ships. In the meantime, the fundamental issues of the compensation law of oil pollution damage from ships were brought into being gradually, that is, the parties assuming responsibility for compensation, the scope of compensation, the limitation of liability, and so forth. This thesis studies the fundamental issues of compensation law of oil pollution damage from ships. Under the compensation law, shipping industry and oil industry share the compensation responsibility and contribute adequate compensation for oil pollution damage. The party incurring civil liability, insurer and compensation fund pay for oil pollution damage. The party incurring civil liability is required to obtain and maintain financial responsibility certificate which secure direct actions against the insurer. The party incurring civil liability and the insurer are composed of the first tier of the compensation responsibility parties. The second tier is the compensation fund for oil pollution damage contributed by oil industry functions. The scope of compensation consists of general type of damage, that is, the real and personal property damage, and special type such as cleanup cost, economic loss and damage to natural resources as well. However, the compensation for oil pollution damage is not infinite but limited below certain amount, under the regime of liability. The meaning of the regime of liability limitation lies in identifying the risk of shipping industry and the volume of liability insurance. In the meantime, the increasing extent of oil pollution damage pushes the increase of compensation amount. In this thesis, these issues are studied with the investigation of relevant international conventions, US Oil Pollution Act 1990 and some typical cases. After that, this thesis probes the construction of Chinese compensation law of oil pollution damage from ships, which consists of taking advantage of International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage 1969 and 1992, International Convention on the Establishment of International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage 1971 and 1992, and US Oil Pollution Act 1990; and finally, gives some recommendations to improve the Chinese legislation in terms of the compensation law of oil pollution damage from ships. Key Words: Damage of Oil Pollution from Ships; Compensation for Damage; the Parties Assuming Responsibility for Compensation; Scope of Compensation; Limitation of Liability for Compensation