ENSURING SAFE AND SMOOTH SEAS: A LOOK AT

SHIPPING CLASSIFICATION SERVICES

• Today, we'll delve into the world of shipping classification services, an essential element in
ensuring the safety and efficiency of maritime operations. By the end of this presentation,
you'll gain a clear understanding of what these services are, their importance, and the key
players in this industry.

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WHAT IS SHIPPING CLASSIFICATION?
•Classification societies establish and maintain
technical standards for ship design, construction,
and operation.

•They certify that vessels comply with these

standards, ensuring their seaworthiness and safety.

•Regular surveys are conducted to verify ongoing

adherence to the standards.

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 WHY IS SHIPPING CLASSIFICATION
IMPORTANT?

•Ensures safety of life at sea: Classification helps prevent maritime accidents and protects the crew,
passengers, and the environment.

•Facilitates international trade: Classification certificates are required for registration, insurance, and
port entry, enabling smooth global commerce.

•Maintains ship value: A classed ship retains its value better due to its proven safety and adherence
to international standards.

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KEY PLAYERS IN SHIPPING CLASSIFICATION

•International Association of Classification Societies (IACS): A

membership organization representing the leading
classification societies globally.

•Individual Classification Societies: There are over 50

classification societies worldwide, each with its own areas of
expertise and geographical reach. Some prominent examples
include:

•American Bureau of Shipping (ABS)

•Bureau Veritas (BV)
•DNV GL
•Lloyd's Register (LR)
•Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK)

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THE CLASSIFICATION PROCESS

•Newbuilding classification:
•Review of ship design and construction plans.
•Surveys during various construction stages.
•Issuance of classification certificate upon successful
completion.

•In-service classification:
•Regular surveys to verify ongoing compliance with
standards.
•Renewal of classification certificate based on
survey results.

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S HIP REGIS T RAT ION:
L EGAL CONCE P T

NILAM ANDALIA KURNIASARI

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OUTLINE
• General Principles
• Terminologies:
– Nationality
– Documentation
– Flag
– Registration
• Duties of the Flag States

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GENERAL
PRINCIPLES
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‘UNRESTRICTED’ ACCESS TO THE
HIGH SEAS (1)
• The 1958 Geneva Convention on the High Seas, Article 2:
– "The high seas being open to all nations, no State may validly purport to subject any part of them to
its sovereignty.”
• International Law plays an important role in providing a framework for the exercise of the
freedom of the high seas, including freedom of navigation.
• 3 Rules in International Law which restrict the unrestricted access to the high seas:
1. Jurisdiction over a vessel on the high seas resides solely with the State to which the vessel belongs.
2. All vessels using the high seas must possess a national character.
3. Nationality is attributed to vessels flying the flag of a State in which the vessel is publicly
registered.

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‘UNRESTRICTED’ ACCESS TO THE
HIGH SEAS (2)
• Article 5 of the High Seas Convention:
"Ships shall have the nationality of the State whose flag they are entitled to fly.“
• Angel Bell Case 1979
The Commercial Court held that "A ship is, in effect, a floating piece of the nation whose flag it wears .
. . prima facie, mortgages either of foreign land or ships will be governed by the law of their situs or
flag.”

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NO NATIONALITY = NO
INTERNATIONAL LAW PROTECTION (1)
• A ship possessing no nationality—a stateless ship—enjoys no protection in international law.
• She is unable to engage in lawful trade since ports will deny entry to her.
• A stateless ship is liable to seizure.
• The case of Naim Molvan v. Attorney General for Palestine:
– Asya was attempting to land Jewish settlers contrary to the Immigration Ordinance in force in Palestine in 1948.
– The vessel was carrying no papers and was arrested by a British destroyer 100 miles from the Palestine coast,
flying no flag to which she was entitled, although when approached she hoisted the Turkish flag and when boarded,
the Zionist flag.
– The Palestinian court ordered the forfeiture of the vessel even though she had been seized on the high seas. On
appeal, the Privy Council rejected the proposition that the principle of freedom of the high seas extended to a
ship possessing no nationality and accepted as a valid statement of the law the following passage from Oppenheim’s
International Law.
– Oppenheim:
“In the interest of order on the open sea, a vessel not sailing under the maritime flag of a State enjoys no protection
whatever, for the freedom of navigation on the open sea is a freedom for such vessels only as sail under the flag of a State.”
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NO NATIONALITY = NO
INTERNATIONAL LAW PROTECTION (2)
• UNCLOS Article 92:
1) Ships shall sail under the flag of one State only and, save in exceptional cases expressly provided
for in international treaties or in this Convention, shall be subject to its exclusive jurisdiction on the
high seas. A ship may not change its flag during a voyage or while in a port of call, save in the case
of a real transfer of ownership or change of registry.
2) A ship which sails under the flags of two or more States, using them according to convenience, may
not claim any of the nationalities in question with respect to any other State, and may be assimilated
to a ship without nationality

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REGISTRATION = NATIONALITY

• The term generally used to describe the attribution of national character to a vessel is
registration, meaning the entry of the particulars of the vessel in the public records of a State.
• Found in conventions:
– Internation Convention on Tonnage Measurement of Ships 1969, Article 3(1)
– International Convention on Load Lines 1966, Article 4(1)

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DUTY OF A STATE
TO MAINTAIN A REGISTRY OF SHIPS
• UNCLOS, Article 94(2.a):
Every State shall maintain a register of ships containing the names and particulars of ships flying its
flag, except those which are excluded from generally accepted international regulations on account of
their small size.

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FREEDOM OF STATES TO FIX
CONDITIONS FOR REGISTRATION
• Individual nations fix the conditions for the entry of ships in their registers and such entry is
generally a precondition for the possession of that State’s nationality, the hoisting of the
national flag and the issuance to the vessel of documents attesting to its nationality.

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TERMINOLOGIES
• N AT I O N A L I T Y
• D O C U M E N TAT I O N
• FLAG
• R E G I S T R AT I O N

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NATIONALITY
• A vessel may be considered as possessing the nationality of a State even though she is
unregistered, possesses no documents evidencing that nationality, nor flies the flag of that
State.
• The United Kingdom Merchant Shipping Act 1894 defined a British ship purely in terms of
ownership, regardless of whether or not she had been registered as the Act required:
1. A ship shall not be deemed to be a British ship unless owned wholly by persons of the following
description . . .; namely,
• British subjects;
• Bodies corporate established under and subject to the laws of some part of Her Majesty’s dominions, and
having their principal place of business in those dominions.
2. (1) Every British ship shall. . . be registered under this Act.

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CHARTERED MERCANTILE BANK OF INDIA V.
NETHERLANDS STEAM NAVIGATION CO. LTD
• A collision case concerning a Dutch-registered ship owned and controlled by British subjects
through a Dutch subsidiary of an English company.
• Judgment of the English Court of Appeal:
– “It is absurd to suppose that the mere fact of carrying the Dutch flag, makes her [i.e., the defendant’s ship]
a Dutch ship. Pirates carried the flag of every nation, but they were hanged by every nation
notwithstanding.“
• The motivation for the registration of the vessel in the Netherlands was to enjoy trading routes to
Java. The shareholders of the Dutch shipowning company and the English shipowning company,
which were the owners of the two vessels involved in the collision, were identical. In these
circumstances, the Court asked "whether the mere fact of obtaining a register in Holland and
carrying the Dutch flag makes her a Dutch ship", and Lord Justice Brett found that "the mere fact of
her being registered in Holland for the purpose of carrying on a Dutch trade . . . does not prevent her
from being a British ship . . . If she belong absolutely and entirely to English owners, she is an
English ship before she is registered, and whether she is registered or not."
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CONNECTING FACTORS TO TEST A
SHIP NATIONALITY
• Build:
– Statute of George III
– French Acte de Navigation of 1793
• Crew
A 1982 report by UNCTAD on Conditions for the Registration of Ships 27 listed 28 countries which still required their vessels
to be manned entirely by nationals and a further 24 countries which stipulated that key personnel and/or a given percentage
of the crew be nationals
• Nationality of Shipowner
– Natural Persons
• Australian national
• Brazilian-born national
• Canadian citizens or permanent residents
– Body Corporate
• Formed and Registered in Liberia
• People’s Republic of China, Ethiopia, the former German Democratic Republic, Ghana, Haiti, Iraq, Mexico = 100%
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CONNECTING FACTORS TO TEST A
SHIP NATIONALITY
• Notwithstanding the multiplicity of connecting factors, the view is increasingly gaining
ground that the only universally applicable test for determining a vessel’s nationality is
the fact of her registration—or, in a limited range of cases, documentation not accompanied by
registration—in a particular State.

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DOCUMENTATION
• In practice "documentation" is used to refer to the issuance by the competent
authorities of a State to a shipowner of a document evidencing a vessel’s nationality and
attesting to her right to fly the national flag of that State.
• Although registration and documentation generally go hand in hand, this is not always the
case and the two concepts should not be confused.
• Registration generally involves the public recognition and protection of the shipowner’s title to
the vessel as well as the conferment of nationality; whereas documentation, on the other hand,
is chiefly concerned with granting and evidencing the entitlement of the shipowner to fly the
national flag.

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DISTINGUISHING DOCUMENTATION AND REGISTRATION
1. Registration is often a precondition of the right to fly a flag, however documentation is the only
allowable and internationally accepted evidence of the right to fly a flag, without which there can be
no recognition on the high seas or in a port State of the national character of a ship.
2. Registration generally involves ascertainment of the owner’s title to the vessel and the recognition and
protection of other rights in rem in the ship, for example, mortgages. Registration is therefore
evidence, generally conclusive, of title; documentation does not evidence title, merely national
character.
3. Two categories of documentation are almost universally adopted, each fulfilling a separate function.
a. A Certificate of Registry is evidence of the ownership and nationality of a ship, accurate according to the
records of the flag State on the date of issue. A Certificate of Registry in practice does not provide evidence
of any mortgage or other encumbrance which has been granted or exists over the ship, and is generally issued
only once, upon first registration of a vessel with the flag State.
b. A Transcript of Registry is a publicly accessible document which will show according to the records of the
flag State on any given date of issue upon application, both the registered owner and the presence of any
properly registered encumbrances.
In this way, the intended purchaser of a vessel is well advised to investigate not only the Certificate of Registry,
but also to procure an up-to-date Transcript of Registry prior to any acquisition.
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FLAG

• The flying of the national flag is visual evidence and a symbol of a ship’s nationality.
• "Flag" is also used as a shorthand for the allocation of nationality to a vessel and the
assumption of exclusive jurisdiction and control by a State over the vessel.

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REGISTRATION
• Registration means the entering of a matter in the public records
• Justinian: "Publicum ius est quod ad statum rei Romanae spectat; privatum quod ad singulorum
utilitatem" (public law is that which has to do with the constitution of the Roman state; private
law, that which has to do with individuals)..

Registration

Public Law Private Law

Function Function
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PUBLIC LAW & PRIVATE LAW
FUNCTIONS
• As an essential objective test of a vessel’s nationality
• Private law had to do with adjusting the relations and securing the interests of individuals and
settling disputes between man and man, whilst public law concerned the framework of
government, the functions of public officials and the adjustment of relations between
individuals and the State.

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PUBLIC LAW FUNCTIONS
1. the allocation of a vessel to a specific State and its subjection to a single jurisdiction for the
purposes, for example, of safety regulation, security aspects, crewing and discipline on
board;
2. the conferment of the right to fly the national flag;
3. the right to diplomatic protection and consular assistance by the flag State;
4. the right to naval protection by the flag State;
5. the right to engage in certain activities within the territorial waters of the flag State—for
example, coastal fishing, trading or in the case of a pleasure yacht, cruising between the
ports of the flag State;
6. in case of war, for determining the application of the rules of war and neutrality to a vessel;
and
7. publicity itself, the provision of searchable, verifiable and authoritative information within
the public domain.
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PRIVATE LAW FUNCTIONS

1. the protection of the title of the registered owner; and

2. the protection of the title and the preservation and ranking of priorities between persons
holding security interests over the vessel, such as mortgagees.

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DUTIES OF THE
FL AG STATE
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• The corollary of the principle of the freedom of the seas is that States
must take responsibility for the operations of the vessels sailing on the
high seas bearing their name.
• Article 94 of UNCLOS describes in some detail, using the imperative
"shall", the obligations of the flag State in the effective exercise of jurisdiction
and control over its ships in administrative, technical and social matters.
• These obligations extend to the maintenance of a register of ships, the
assumption of jurisdiction under its internal law over ships on its register, their
masters, officers and crews and the taking of the necessary steps to ensure
safety at sea, including regular surveys.
• In a more widely drawn provision, the Article continues to narrate the
requirement of each State "to conform to generally accepted international
regulations, procedures and practices, and to take any steps which may be
necessary to secure their observance."
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UNCLOS ARTICLE 217
• Article 217 of UNCLOS obliges flag States to ensure compliance by their vessels with
international rules and standards as well as laws and regulations adopted in accordance with the
Convention for the protection of the marine environment from pollution.
• States must adopt the necessary laws and regulations for the implementation of these international
precepts and provide for their effective enforcement irrespective of where a violation occurs. In
particular, flag States must prohibit their vessels from sailing except in compliance with international
rules and standards, ensure that their vessels carry the necessary certificates issued pursuant to those
rules and standards and periodically inspect those vessels to ensure that the certificates are in
conformity with the actual condition of the vessels.
• The same Article also provides for the investigation by flag States of violations by their vessels of
international rules and standards and for the stipulation by flag States of penalties adequate in
severity to discourage violations wherever they occur. It is the lack of any effective
mechanism for the enforcement of these well intentioned but practically toothless
requirements against flag States who do not themselves enforce or observe compliance by the
shipowners registered with that State, which has drawn the greatest criticism and concern among the
international community in recent times.
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EXXON VALDEZ &PRESTIGE
• Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989 led to the establishment of the IMO Subcommittee on Flag
State Implementation (FSI) in 1992. The FSI Subcommittee has encouraged the adoption
of a significant number of resolutions of the IMO Assembly in the fields of safety, pollution
prevention and port State control.
• Following the Prestige casualty in November 2002 a letter to the Secretary-General of the
United Nations was jointly submitted by Greenpeace International, the International
Transport Workers’ Federation and the World Wide Fund for Nature calling for the
establishment of a task force to address the stated problem of the lack of a genuine link
between a ship and the State of her registration, and the lack of adequate implementation and
enforcement by certain flag States. As a result, the Consultative Group on Flag State
Implementation was convened in May 2003 and included representation from the
IMO, the International Labour Organization, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization,
the United Nations Environment Performance, UNCTAD and the OECD.

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LEGAL
REQUIREMENTS OF
SHIP
R E G I S T R AT I O N
F R E E D O M O F S TAT E S T O F I X
C O N D I T I O N S F O R R E G I S T R AT I O N

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PRINCIPLES
• Permanent Court of Arbitration (Muscat Dhows Case):
"Generally speaking it belongs to every sovereign to decide to whom he will accord the right to fly his
flag and to prescribe the rules governing such grants."
• United States Supreme Court (Lauritzen v. Larsen)
Each State under international law may determine for itself the conditions on which it will grant its
nationality to a merchant ship, thereby accepting responsibility for it and acquiring authority over it.
Nationality is evidenced to the world by the ship’s papers and its flag. The United States has firmly and
successfully maintained that the regularity and validity of a registration can be questioned only by the
registering State.

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