Seascapes - Who regulate ships?

Every ship must fly the flag of the country in which she is registered and carry the name of her port of registry upon the stern. It is the vessel's most visible identity. Ships are built and operated to comply with national maritime laws which are enforced by the maritime administration of their flag state. But shipping is an international industry; ships travel abroad and it would be ridiculous to have different laws applying to ships in every country at which they call. So there is an international regime applying to shipping and their flag states subscribe to certain international treaties which are chiefly concerned with safety, pollution prevention and the conditions aboard ship.An arm of the United Nations ; the International Maritime Organisation, is the principal body which generates and maintains regulations which apply to shipping , and virtually all nations which operate any shipping are members of IMO. The London-based organisation is responsible for a number of international conventions , such as the Safety of Life at Sea Convention , and the member nations undertake to translate these into their own national law and apply them to their own shipping. Therefore the same regulations will be implemented, as international shipping trades around the world. Most countries will have a government survey service to ensure that the laws are being properly applied.BIMCO is a non-governmental member of the IMO and plays a full part in its work. As BIMCO members own and operate a large tonnage of shipping , it is well placed to offer a practical input into many of the issues which are currently being raised as new regulations are being suggested, and existing rules amended.Although it is flag states which have the main obligation to regulate shipping which flies their flag , governments have certain rights over foreign ships which come into their ports. They exercise these under Port State Control Treaties, which may be regional agreements to ensure that visiting ships comply with international regulations.Thus under the Paris Memorandum on port state control , countries of the European region permit port state inspectors to board and inspect visiting ships, sharing information about what they find throughout a European maritime network. There are similar regional agreements in other parts of the world. They hope this way that sub-standard ships will be detected, and if necessary detained, because implicit in the port state control treaties are the rights to enforce compliance with international law , and of detention.Governments sometimes delegate powers of ship inspection and survey to other bodies, which then become regulators in their own right, issuing certificates in the name of the maritime administration of the flag state. Classification societies, which are primarily technical rulemaking and auditing bodies, often fulfil this role.Although almost all of the regulatory regime surrounds the design, construction and operation of the ship, along with the qualifications of those who will man her, the shipowner and manager now have to be qualified and inspected to fulfil this role under the International Safety Management Code . It is, some have suggested, a license to operate ships and completes this regulatory circle which surrounds and protects the ship.

By BIMCO