Private Maritime Law

Public Maritime Law

MARITIME LAW

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1. What is Maritime Law?

q A body of national laws – which are international in scope - relating to ships, shipping operations (including navigation and the carriage of goods by sea-going vessels) and seamen.

q The focus of these laws is on the ship, its crew and its cargo. The underlying intention is to regulate behaviour (as with all laws) and to provide rules and procedures to resolve disputes and facilitate restitution in case of harm or damage.

2. What does “maritime law” include?

q Ship safety

q Collisions & COLREGS

q Limitation of liability

q Salvage

q Pollution

q Ship registration

q Dispute resolution

q Maritime liens & mortgages

q Crew contracts

q Carriage of goods by Sea & Bills of lading

q Charter parties

q Towage contracts

q Sale & Purchase contracts

q Passenger contracts

3. Characteristics of Maritime Law:

1) It is a wide field of law – encompassing numerous national laws, regulations and international conventions.

2) The system is enforced through national laws, but is strongly influenced by conventions and thus can be said to be international in effect.

4. What are Maritime Conventions?

q Concept: Multilateral Treaties agreed between nation states.

q Intention: to create uniformity between states with respect to formulation of laws and associated regulations.

q Objective: to promote predictability of outcomes & encourage international trade and global business investment.

5. Who creates Maritime Conventions?

· The 3 principal inter- governmental organisations are:

o Comite Maritime (CMI)

o Intl Maritime Org (IMO)

o Intl Labour Org (ILO)

· Other convention organisations include the ILO and UNCTAD.

· Each organisation acts as the “permanent secretariat” for the conventions it helps create, agree, ratify and bring “into force”.

· See their websites for updated status of ratifications plus full texts of the conventions.

6. How do Maritime Conventions become national law?

· Depends upon ratifying nation’s constitution and legal process.

· In some countries, ratification can generate immediate application as law in that country e.g. USA.

· In others, e.g. UK and most common law jurisdictions, including Singapore, formal enactment is required by an Act which may apply by using its own words (can be problematic) or by an Act embodying the original convention text (the modern approach).

7. Who enforces maritime legislation?

· Enforcement process will depend upon the nature of the legislation (public, criminal or private).

· Flag State matters include crew matters, trading certificates, ship registration, safety/ ship inspection etc. and apply only to own registered/flagged vessels.

· Coastal/Port State matters include pollution, wreck removal, port state control, pilotage, COLREGS breach etc and apply to both home flag and foreign vessels while in port state waters.

8. How do we know what maritime law applies in what country?

· Look at the CMI and IMO web sites for the latest status of ratification of maritime conventions (look to see what exemptions have been made, if any).

· Check the national law website of the country in question e.g. Singapore MSA 1996 to confirm enactment into national law + any modifications which have been made to convention text!

· Confirm with a specialist maritime lawyer in that country/jurisdiction before acting in reliance on that information.

Дата добавления: 2014-12-23