Flag State Implementation

The texts of the Guidelines for flag State inspections under the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 and Guidelines for port State control officers carrying out inspections under the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 are to be submitted to the 303rd Session (November 2008) of the ILO Governing Body which is expected to take a decision on its publication.

All of these flag States have the right to sail ships flying their flag on the high seas (LOSC Article 90) ; and those ships enjo y the freedom of navigation upon the high seas (LOSC Article 87) . W ith this freedom comes a concomitant duty upon the flag State to effectively exercise its jurisdiction and control in administrative , technical , social (LOSC Article 94 (1)) and en vironmental protection (LOSC Article 217) matters over ships flying its flag. 1.2 Flag State Responsibility The absence of any authority over ships sailing the high seas would lead to chaos. One of the essential adjuncts to the principle of freedom of the seas is that a ship must fly the flag of a single State and that it is subject to the jurisdiction of that State. (Brown 1994 , p. 287) This opinion of the International Law Commission in 1956 on a draft article of the High Seas Convention (HSC) was a product of its time; a time of traditional maritime States and responsible long-established shipping companies operating for 3 the most part under the effective maritime administrations of their national flag .

In Current Maritime Issues and the International Maritime Organization, leading experts thoughtfully consider the most pressing issues confronting the International Maritime Organization, as the IMO celebrates its fiftieth anniversary. The papers in this publication were originally presented at the Twenty-Third Annual Seminar of the Center for Oceans Law and Policy (COLP), University of Virginia School of Law, an event co-hosted with the IMO in January, 1999, at its headquarters in London. Subjects covered were maritime safety, marine environmental protection, flag State implementation and port State control, IMO's interface with the Law of the Sea Convention, IMO Legal Committee work, and broader questions of IMO regulations and oceans policy. Current Maritime Issues and the International Maritime Organization also includes keynote papers by Sir Robert Jennings, the distinguished former President of the International Court of Justice; Ms Glenda Jackson, the United Kingdom Under-Secretary of State and Minister of Shipping; and Ambassador Satya N. Nandan, the Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority.

The guidelines contained in this book are an important international resource for implementing port State responsibilities under the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC). They were adopted by the ILO in September 2008 together with Guidelines for flag State inspections under the MLC, 2006.

This volume provides a detailed legal analysis of the fourth pillar of the international maritime regulatory regime, the comprehensive Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, and its provisions to achieve decent work for seafarers and a level playing field for shipowners.

Now in its 15th year, "The NILOS Documentary Yearbook" provides the reader with an excellent collection of documents related to ocean affairs and the law of the sea, issued each year by organizations, organs and bodies of the United Nations system. Documents of the UN General Assembly, Meeting of State Parties to the 1982 UN Law of the Sea Convention, CLCS, ISBA, ITLOS, Follow-Up to the UN Straddling Fish Stocks and Small Island States Conferences, ECOSOC, UNEP, and UNCTAD are included first, followed by the documents of FAO, IAEA, IMO, and UNESCO/IOC. As in the previous volumes, documents which were issued in the course of 1999 are reproduced, while other relevant documents are listed. "The NILOS Documentary Yearbook" has proved to be of invaluable assistance in facilitating access by the community of scholars and practitioners in ocean affairs and the law of the sea to essential documentation. The entry of the 1982 UN Law of the Sea Convention into force on 16th November 1994 and of the Part XI Agreement on 28 July 1996, and progress in the implementation of Chapter 17 of Agenda 21, to be assessed at the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit, make continuation of this assistance of particular significance in the years to come. The members of the Yearbook's Advisory Board are: Judges Abdul Koroma and Shigeru Oda of the ICJ, Judges Thomas Mensah, Dolliver Nelson, and Tullio Treves of the ITLOS, as well as Rosalie Balkin, Edward Brown, Lee Kimball, Bernard Oxman, and Shabtai Rosenne.

This study gives an overview of the obligations of flag States and the control of their compliance with such obligations. It outlines the main obligations as to maritime safety and security as well as marine pollution prevention under international as well as European law and shows the still existing enforcement deficits vis-a-vis non-complying flag States as well as substandard ships. Some of the main developments to counter these deficits such as the Voluntary Member State Audit Scheme on the IMO level or the Third Maritime Safety Package on the EU level are taken into account.