The Nairobi International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks, 2007 was adopted on 18 May 2007 by the International Conference on the Removal of Wrecks convened by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) at the Headquarters of the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON), from 14 to 18 May 2007. The Convention provides the legal basis to enable States to remove, or have removed, from their coastlines and waters around their coasts, wrecks posing a hazard to the safety of shipping or to the marine environment. To achieve these objectives, the treaty includes provisions on the reporting and locating of ships and wrecks and criteria for determining the hazard posed by wrecks, including assessment of damage to the marine environment. It also regulates measures to facilitate the removal of wrecks, as well as the liability of the owner for the costs of locating, marking and removing of ships and wrecks. The registered shipowner is required to maintain compulsory insurance or other financial security to cover liability under the Convention. This publication reproduces the texts of the Final Act of the International Conference on the Removal of Wrecks, the Nairobi International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks, 2007 and the three resolutions adopted by the Conference.

The book is concerned with the harmonisation of maritime safety legal systems in Europe. It describes maritime safety legal systems in selected European countries as well as maritime safety issues from the perspective of the International Maritime Organisation, European Union, and European Free Trade Association. Distinguished scholars from Europe's leading maritime law academic centres present national perspectives of maritime safety systems, questioning whether the adopted national solutions guarantee the compatibility with IMO and EU legal regime, as well as assessing the global and EU system. Moreover, the book seeks to provide some answers as to whether the IMO goals on maritime safety are adequate in light of current safety challenges and how to achieve higher level of enforcement of internationally-recognised maritime safety standards. It will be of great assistance to those readers who need to familiarize themselves with current problems inherent in maritime safety, whether that be lawyers, scholars, professional mariners, or national institutions. Chapter 14 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Ship recycling conserves resources, employs an unskilled workforce, and removes outdated tonnage. Operating mainly on the Indian subcontinent, this ‘primitive’ industry often results in loss of human life and pollution of the marine environment. Despite moral indignation, the international community has struggled to manage this industry and only recently completed the IMO International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships. Using the Indian experience on shipbreaking as a case study, this book assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the Convention. The author argues that the Convention may not succeed because it fails to strike a balance between environmental protection, human rights, and commercial realities. The book offers recommendations for a holistic and integrated approach to a sustainable ship recycling industry.

“Marine transport, and the law and policy within which it operates, must be seen as very similar to other international undertakings operating on a transnational scale.” These concluding words in Edgar Gold’s Maritime Transport (Lexington, 1981) aptly capture the past, present and future of the regulation of international shipping. The Regulation of International Shipping: International and Comparative Perspectives in Honor of Edgar Gold pays tribute to a mariner, legal practitioner and university teacher with a unique understanding of shipping and maritime trade. With diverse disciplinary backgrounds and perspectives, the distinguished contributors to this tribute examine the public law and policy framework for international navigation, the complex relationship between shipping and the marine environment, the imperative of better protection of seafarers, and ultimately, responsible ocean use. This book includes biographical and bibliographic notes on Edgar Gold.

The Draft Marine Navigation Bill was published on 6 May 2008. (Cm. 7370, ISBN 9780101737029 ). A supplementary consultation on the ratification of the Nairobi Convention on the Removal of Wrecks, for which the draft Bill includes the necessary statutory provisions, was published at the same time by the Department for Transport. The Bill covers four main areas: (a) port safety, including measures relating to pilotage, National Occupational Standards for Harbour Masters and pilots, and extending powers of general direction to more harbour authorities; (b) the closure of harbours, and the subsequent relinquishing of the legal rights and duties of the harbour authority; (c) the role of the General Lighthouse Authorities, including their powers of enforcement, the territorial extent of their operations, their commercial work and their pension schemes; and (d) the ratification and implementation of the Nairobi Convention. The introduction of new powers to issue directions to port and harbour authorities and to specify minimum standards of competence for harbour masters and pilots is supported. The provisions relating to General Lighthouse Authorities are a sensible package intended to clarify their powers and put beyond doubt the legal validity of much of the essential work which they have been carrying out for centuries. The provision in the draft Bill to give statutory effect Nairobi International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks will remove from the UK taxpayer a significant potential liability in respect of wrecks in UK waters.

The first full-scale study of the international legal framework governing underwater cultural heritage to be published in nearly two decades.

Ocean governance has its legal basis in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and in numerous international maritime conventions. These rules help to balance conflicting interests in the uses of the oceans and seas and the protection and preservation of the marine environment. Their efficiency depends, however, on their enforcement. In 2007 Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Peter Ehlers and Prof. Dr. Rainer Lagoni organized a seminar on 'Enforcement of International and EU Law in Maritime Affairs'. Participants were graduate scholars of the International Max Planck Research School for Maritime Affairs (IMPRS) at the University of Hamburg and graduate students. Their papers cover various aspects of enforcement relating to the new Wreck Removal Convention and to rules of the European Union, such as port State control, enforcement measures in fisheries, the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), protection of maritime boundaries and inquiries into maritime casualties. The volume also includes an analysis of the maritime policy of the EU as a new integrated approach to maritime activities.