Do current Maritime laws effectively safeguard Maritime Security?

Author: Devang Bhatia, Delhi Metropolitan Education, GGSIPU.


The sea has consistently been a significant wellspring of nourishment for the existence it produced, and from most punctual written history it has additionally served exchange and business, experience and revelation. It has isolated and united individuals. The law of the ocean is an assemblage of customs, deals, and peaceful accords by which governments keep everything under control, efficiency, and serene relations on the ocean. Safeguarding of the Seas is not just a legal soup but a fundamental responsibility.The ocean produces over half of the world’s oxygen. Many medicinal products come from the ocean; many economic benefits come from Oceans.


What are Maritime Laws?

Life itself emerged from the seas. The sea is huge and covers 140 million square miles, around 72 percent of the Earth’s surface.  Admiral’s office law or oceanic law is an assortment of law that administers nautical issues and private sea business and other nautical issues. Worldwide principles, overseeing how the seas and oceans must be utilized, are known as the Laws of the Sea. Admiral’s office law comprises of both homegrown law on sea exercises, and private worldwide law overseeing the connections between private gatherings working or utilizing maritime boats.

Admiral’s office Law may be perceived from the Law of the Sea, which is an arrangement of public overall law overseeing navigational rights, mineral rights, ward over sea shore front waters, and the maritime associations between nations. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea has been gotten by 167 countries[b] and the European Union, and discussions are settled at the ITLOS board in Hamburg.

Understanding Maritime Laws

The most reformist nations of the world have a different code for the sea laws i.e. the oceanic laws work particularly than the public laws of the nation. The United Nations, through the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has given a few shows that might be upheld through method of methods for the naval forces and coast gatekeepers of countries which have marked the arrangement plotting those standards. Oceanic guideline oversees a great deal of the inclusion claims alluding to boats and payload; common subjects among shipowners, sailors, and travelers; and theft.

Today, there are many shows managing all components of oceanic exchange and transport. The IMO names three shows as its center:

1.The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea.

2.The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships

3.The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping for Seafarers.

NOAA’s Role:

NOAA is liable for portraying on its nautical outlines the constraints of the 12 nautical mile Territorial Sea, 24 nautical mile Contiguous Zone, and 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)[1]. Every one of these oceanic zones is extended based on what is known as a “typical gauge,” which is gotten from NOAA nautical outlines. A “typical benchmark” is characterized under the Law of the Sea as the low-water line along the coast as set apart on authoritatively perceived, huge scope graphs or the most reduced diagrammed datum, which is mean lower low water (MLLW) in the United States. The technique for showing up at this pattern is depicted in the 1958 Convention and in the 1982 Convention.


Lately there has been a flood in robbery off the shoreline of Somalia and in the Gulf of Guinea. Privateer assaults are a peril to the government assistance of sailors and the security of route and trade. These criminal demonstrations may bring about the death toll, actual mischief or prisoner taking of sailors, huge interruptions to trade and route, budgetary misfortunes to shipowners, expanded protection expenses and security costs, expanded expenses to buyers and makers, and harm to the marine climate.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), through its Global Maritime Crime Programme (GMCP) combats transnational organized crime in Africa focusing on countering piracy of the Horn of Africa and Gulf of Guinea. The programme has delivered support to states in the region by carrying out trials and imprisonment of piracy suspects as well as developing maritime law enforcement capabilities through the facilitation of training programmes. From the piracy prosecution model, prisoner transfers and training of members in the judicial system of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean, to full-time mentoring to coast guards and police units in Somalia, Kenya and Ghana, the UNODC GMCP has accomplished many successes in a challenging environment.

Admiralty Laws in India

India has a broad coastline of 7517 km, barring the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Indian ports handle around a lot of the complete volume of nation’s exchange and around 70% regarding value. There are twelve significant ports and 200 minor and middle of the road ports spread across nine (waterfront) sea States in India. Ports are under the Concurrent List of the Indian Constitution.

It  is  pertinent  to  point  out  that  in  addition  to  the  above legislations, there  are several other  legislations are  applicable  in  India which  directly  or indirectly  relate to  maritime  law, i.e., the Indian  Merchant  Shipping  Act, 1958[hereinafter  referred  to as MSA];  the Indian  Carriage  of  Goods  by  Sea Act, 1925[hereinafter referred to as CGSA]; the Indian Bills of Lading Act, 1856[hereinafter  referred  to  as IBLA];the Multi modal  Transportation  of Goods  Act,  1993[hereinafter  referred  to  as MTG];the Major  Port  Trusts Act, 1963[hereinafter referred to as MPTA]; the Marine Insurance Act, 1963[hereinafter referred to as MIA]12;the Contract Act, 1872;the Sale of Goods Act,  1930;the Evidence  Act,  1872;the Indian  Penal  Code,  1860;the Transfer  of  Property  Act,  1882;the Civil  Procedure  Code,  1908;the Criminal  Procedure  Code,  1973;the Limitation  Act,  1963;the Companies Act,1956; the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996;the Maritime Zones of India  (Regulation  of  Fishery  by  Foreign  Vessels)  Act,  1981 [2]

Few of the major acts of Admiral law in India enacted over the years are:

1.Merchant Shipping Act,1958

2.Multimodal Transportation of Goods (Amendment) Act, 2000


[1] ~:text=The%20air%20we%20breathe%3A%20The, our%20climate%20and%20weather%20patterns.


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