Registration of ships began to control ships carrying people and cargoes within the seaborne empires of Europe. It has proved a convenient means of establishing title to the property in a vessel, and serves to determine which country’s law governs the operation of the vessel.
In order to operate internationally, a vessel must be registered in a country, which permits the vessel to fly its flag. The country of registration is the ship’s “Flag State”. The Flag State’s obligations and responsibilities towards a ship flying its flag as given in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS-1982) are:
- A ship shall sail under the flag of a state
- A ship shall have the nationality of the state whose flag the ship is entitled to fly
- There must be a genuine link between the ship and the Flag State
- The Flag State shall exercise its jurisdiction and control in the administrative, technical and social matters over ships flying its flag.
In order to establish and strengthen the link between the Flag State and the ship, The United Nations adopted a Convention on Conditions for Registration of Ships in 1986. It recommends that a flag state should be linked to its ships either by having an economic stake in the ownership of the ships or by providing mariners to crew the ships. The convention has not entered into force, despite its adoption as an adequate number of member states have not ratified it.
The Merchant Navy is the maritime register of the United Kingdom. King George V gave this title to the British merchant shipping fleet as an honor for their service in the First World War. Many nations have adopted the title for their national fleet. |
