Maritime Insurance Law

International Maritime Law

International maritime law is actually a set of rules governing relations between the nations in connection with their marine activities, particularly, by establishing the legal status and appropriate use of maritime space for the purpose of peaceful use of this space and also the resources within it. Maritime trade was the basis and the strongest reason for the establishment of rules of law within this sphere of navigation.

These laws were developed as a result of conflicts between the local maritime customs and piracy on the high seas. The laws forced ship-owners and merchants to meet and form some normal course of relations among them. At the seaports, these customs reflected on the interactions between the ship owners and the merchants, and between the captains and crews of vessels.

Modern international maritime laws are used to regulate the relationships between nations of various socio-economic systems because of the sovereign equality of all nations, their mutual respect and for their peaceful coexistence. 

Maritime also known as admiralty law, or the law of the sea is a separate body of procedural and substantive law which governs ships and shipping, business or commerce transactions at sea, and also the duties, rights, and liabilities of ship-owners and other maritime workers, maritime injury or maritime property damage at sea.

Under the admiralty, the flag flown on the ship determines the law on board, meaning a ship flying the American flag in the Mediterranean Sea is subject only to the admiralty laws of America, and a ship flying the Greek flag in American waters is subject only to the Greek law. Maritime law governs issues dealing with Maritime laws sometimes get complicated as they are a combination of federal laws and treaties.

The basic rules of modern international maritime law were formulated during the activities of the First, Second and Third United Nations Conferences on Maritime Laws or the Laws of the seas. In international maritime law the following basic concepts such as internal waters, territorial seas, adjacent zones, exclusive economic zones, continental shelves of coastal nations, the international region of the sea floor, the high seas etc are included and this legal mode is inherent in each part of the seas and sea floor of the World Ocean.