Legal Briefing & Risk Focus

This nice publication prepared and officially released by the UK P&I Club together with the UKDC is dedicated to the maritime pollution legislation in Australia, and in particular to the very latest amendments in it. Though very short, it still covers such the important topics as the recent changes to Australia’s Maritime Legislation, background and key amendments, Navigation Act 1912 and also Protection of the Sea Act 1983... Another remarkably useful official paper from one of the most authoritative sources on the today's maritime industry providing its participants with the required info.

The author of this release is Helen Huang, the Claims Executive. The brief contents of the publication is - Overview; Guide to Chinese pollution regulations; Pre-contracting with the approved OSRO; Scope of application; Mandatory insurance and establishing the domestic oil pollution fund; Strict liability and its limitations; Direct action taken against the insurers; Selected articles from the Regulation. Have a look into this compact yet comprehensive release to be in the loop of the latest happenings in the relevant fields of shipping and be updated with the associated regulatory information.

This UK P&I Club publication belongs to the Legal Briefing series and addresses the newly developed and  introduced regulations that are contained there in the Polar Code - the content of the document will be of practical use for all people engaged in the relevant activities.

The paper covers such the important aspects and the regulations themselves, safety measures to be taken, survey and certificates, ship hull structure, shipboard machinery installations, fire and safety protection, life-saving appliances/arrangements, safe navigation, proper communication, voyage planning, manning and training, pollution prevention measures, and application of the subject Code...

The present issue of the "Legal Briefing" which is addressing critically important aspects of the environmental law - it's content will be met with interest by the industry since it is dedicated to the recently introduced rules and regulations directly relating to the control of waters commonly carried in the vessels' ballast tanks.

Several articles included in the paper address the efficient/safe management of ballast waters including the applicability of various regulations of the IMO BWM Convention together with the recognized standards and their coming into force, sediment management plus duties of the owners, performance standards, BWM plan/record book, mechanical/physical/chemical treatment and other serious matters.

Another useful issue of the "Legal Briefing" released by UK P&I Club and prepared by the world recognized maritime industry experts. The contents include following topics - Equality of the protection of goods shipped through European Union customs - General overview, EU ACDR, standing for the "Advance Cargo Declaration Regime" and the scope of application of this regime, the cargo information that shall be submitted, determination of who actually shall be liable to declaring the specific cargo info in advance and who shall be considered the "Carrier" under subject Regulation, plus what IT system shall be utilized? This informative booklet also contains several practical examples of the real life application of the ACDR and additional information on the bulk cargo and containerized cargo...

This issue of the Legal Briefing deals with the serious impact that the Ebola virus has had on the international maritime industry... Unfortunately, it has already tremendously escalated recently with the WHO recording over fifteen thousand confirmed disease cases with much more than five thousand lethal cases by the end-November'2014.

The list of the geographical regions mostly affected by the virus included three African countries, namely Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea; and, it shall be noted that numerous disease cases were also reported in several other countries - subject virus was spread by the humans undertaking travels from the infected regions...

One more release of the "Legal Briefing", this one dedicated solely to the air pollution problem; this booklet starts with the general information about the applicable regulations getting stricter and also covering the major elements of the air pollution prevention; the newly introduced NOx limits coming under the Annex VI to MARPOL and stated in the thirteenth regulation have been addressed in detail together with the ODS, i.e. "ozone depleting substances", VOC, requirements to the documents and all other means of complying with the relevant requirements, bunker delivery notes, EU encouraging stringent measures plus main elements of the EU sulfur directive, and other important regulatory information.

The "Legal Briefing" series has originally been intended to provide the exchange of the professional legal expertise among all members of the Club. The present document is providing a general overview of the certain applicable regulations and laws directly related to the oil pollution risks in America.

It should be noted that the content has been compiled aiming to serve as a guidance while the authors have made every effort to making it maximum accurate. Among the issues that have been addressed there are the liability and conversation plus the COFR/VRP requirements. Issue released in August 2014...