Review article
Specifics of the legal regime in seaports
Tomislav Batur
; Lučka uprava Ploče
Abstract
Seaports are extremely important infrastructural facilities, essential links of international transport and logistics chains. Ports are in an economic sense very important both international and regional level, and thus a law that applies to them. In terms of appearance and development of the ports law is important to emphasize that the ports have always had incompletely defined position within the legal system.
Regarding the position of the ports law within the legal system, it should be considered an integral part of the maritime law in a broader sense, which includes international and national private and public maritime law, and the international law of the sea.
Despite more ambiguous academic position of ports law it is evident that this area is full of legal exceptions and deviations from the general law. It is obvious that the ports are suitable for the legal regulation with specific laws (lex specialis). Ports can hardly function within the normal legal framework and therefore is largely avoided, as shown by numerous examples.
In order to fully understand the specific nature of the ports law the following facts should be taken into account.
Ports are areas that are, a kind of interface between land and sea; therefore, the ports law is abundant of specific exceptions to the general maritime law. Its coverage area is located somewhere between the ship and the shore, so it's not a law relating to neither land nor maritime law, because of that, it has essentially the border or marginal character.
Ports law is the product of the collision between different legal regimes, namely between the law relating to the ship and its nationality on the one hand and the law relating to the coastal State or port state on the other. It is characterized by a conflict of interest that arises between the right to free navigation and right to trade across the territorial sovereignty of the port states and port authorities.
Ports are also important economic multipliers that have significant direct and indirect impact on the creation of value added and employment in their environment. The purpose of the proper functioning of ports as the most complex and important economic systems could justify the very occasional deviations from the general law.
Keywords
Seaports; maritime law; seaports law; port regime
Hrčak ID:
109185
URI
Publication date:
10.10.2013.
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