Croatia maritime code to be thoroughly amended

In 1994, Croatia passed its Maritime Code regulating a whole range of maritime matters in a systematic and thorough manner. In 1996, work began towards a thorough amendment. Working groups have now completed their work, and a whole set of amendments has been sent into the parliamentary procedure. The most significant developments may be outlined as follows.

The proposed amendments to the legal regime of maritime hypotheque should being this instrument closer to the Anglo-American concept of ship mortgage. Beyond the already existing right of repossession, a right of private sale is now being added to the list of mortgagees' rights against mortgaged ships. In the field of maritime liens, including the order of priority amongst various secured interests against proceeds of sale of a ship, a new system has been introduced, inspired by UNCTAD's International Convention on Maritime Liens and Mortgages 1993.

The amendments dealing with general limitation of liability for maritime claims should bring the code into full conformity with the 1976 Limitation Convention, as amended. The passenger limit has been increased from 46.666 SDR to 175,000
SDR per passenger, and the 25 million SDR ceiling has been removed. The setting up of a limitation fund has been made mandatory.

The code's provisions on the carriage of goods by sea have been refreshed so as to embrace the provisions of the CMI's Uniform Rules on Sea Waybills and Electronic Bills of Lading, 1990. The section on carriage of passengers and their luggage has been amended in accordance with the 1974 Athens Convention and its protocols of both 1976 and 1990.

On the subject of salvage, while the code already reflects the basic principles of the 1989 Salvage Convention, the proposed amendments purport to bring the code's provisions fully in line with the convention. Apart from a number of technical and terminological interventions, wreck removal has been abolished as an independent concept and included in the concept of salvage.

In the field of general average, the proposed amendments are aimed at harmonising the code's provisions with the CMI's 1994 version of the York-Antwerp Rules.

Regarding civil liability for oil pollution, the current text of the code adopts the principles of the CLC Convention, 1969, as amended by the 1984 Protocol. The proposed amendments reflect the provisions of the 1992 Protocol.

The provisions dealing with ship arrest have been hammered out so as to reflect more precisely the spirit of the 1952 Arrest Convention. These particular amendments have been made on the basis of an abundant body of judicature which warned that the courts in Croatia had failed to observe some basic ideas of the arrest convention.

Another important objective of the proposed amendments is to attune the Maritime Code, both conceptually and in respect of its terminology, with some important general laws passed in the meantime, such as the Ownership and Other Real Rights Act and the Forced Execution Act defining the legal environment in which the Maritime Code must operate.

Gordan Stankovic, head of the Shipping and Admiralty Department at Vukic, Jelusic & Sulina, participated in the preparation of amendments to the Maritime Code as a member of the Working Group in charge of registration of ships, maritime liens and mortgages, and ship arrest.