An Overview of the 1952 and 1999 Arrest Conventions

The 1999 Arrest Convention came into force on 14 September 2011, having finally been ratified by the requisite ten countries. That this process took over 12 years reflects the lukewarm reception that the Convention has received from the international shipping community. The Convention shall only have effect in the jurisdictions which have ratified it and therefore, initially at least, its impact will be relatively limited. Nevertheless, it does introduce some notable changes from the position under the more popular 1952 Arrest Convention. In this article, we provide an overview of these changes and their potential implications for ship-owners and claimants alike.

Ratification of the 1999 Arrest Convention

Article 14 of the 1999 Arrest Convention provides that it will enter into force six months after it has been ratified by 10 States. Albania became the tenth State to ratify the Convention on 14 March 2011 and thus it entered into force on 14 September 2011. The States which have agreed to be bound by the Convention are Albania, Algeria, Benin, Bulgaria, Ecuador, Estonia, Latvia, Liberia, Spain and the Syrian Arab Republic.

Application of the 1999 Arrest Convention

So far, no further States have agreed to be bound by the Convention. Thus it will, for now, only take effect within the jurisdictions of those 10 States. Article 8 provides that the Convention shall apply to any ship within the jurisdiction of a signatory State. Therefore, ships flying the flag of a State which has not ratified the 1999 Convention will be subject to the Convention when in the waters of a State which has (unless that State has made specific reservations to the contrary). This will be the case irrespective of the nationalities of the parties in dispute and any law and jurisdiction provision they may have agreed between them.

Article 10 allows States to make certain reservations when ratifying the Convention. The only notable reservation so far has been made by Spain which has reserved the right not to apply the rules of the Convention to ships which do not fly the flag of another 1999 Convention State.

Spain is also a signatory to the 1952 Convention and this reservation would, at first glance, appear to maintain the status quo in respect of ships flying the flag of other 1952 Convention States. However, practitioners in this jurisdiction suggest that, following an amendment to the Procedural Law Act, the Spanish Court will not exercise the right not to apply the...