Loss of Life or Personal Injury
- Merchant ships of different nationalities travel from port to port
carrying goods or passengers. They incur liabilities in the course of
their voyage and they subject themselves to the jurisdiction of foreign
States when they enter the waters of those States. They are liable to be
arrested for the enforcement of maritime claims, or seized in execution or
satisfaction of judgments in legal actions arising out of collisions,
salvage, loss of life or personal injury, loss or damages to goods and the
like. They are liable to be detained or confiscated by the authorities of
foreign States for violating their customs, regulations, safety measures,
rules of the road, health regulations, and for other causes. The coastal
State may exercise its criminal jurisdiction on board the vessel for the
purpose of arrest or investigation in connection with certain serious
crimes. In the course of an international voyage, a vessel thus subjects
itself to the public and private laws of various countries. A ship
traveling from port to port stays very briefly in any one port. A
plaintiff seeking to enforce his maritime claim against a foreign ship has
no effective remedy once it has sailed away and if the foreign owner has
neither property nor residence within jurisdiction. The plaintiff may
therefore detain the ship by obtaining an order of attachment whenever it
is feared that the ship is likely to slip out of jurisdiction, thus
leaving the plaintiff without any security.
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Article 1 of the Brussel Arrest Convention and also of the Geneva Arrest
Convention deals with the above subject maritime claim although the
conventions has not been adopted by legislation, the principles
incorporated are applicable as per Supreme Court of India judgments to
invoke admiralty jurisdiction for ship arrest in India.
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- BCAS: 2102-1013
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