Tacit Acceptance Procedure

Tacit Acceptance Procedure in Maritime Law

Note: There is more information on maritime/admiralty law here.

The following is a definition of Tacit Acceptance Procedure, produced by Tetley, in the context of admiralty law: A procedure for amending limits of liability under various maritime law conventions and protocols drafted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), (see this maritime law term in this legal dictionary), without the need to convoke a diplomatic conference to adopt the amendment by protocol. By virtue of this more expeditious procedure, any proposal to amend liability limits under a given convention or protocol, at the request of at least one-quarter of the Contracting States to the convention or protocol concerned, is first circulated by the Secretary General of the IMO to all such States. Any amendment so proposed and circulated is then submitted to the Legal Committee of the IMO for consideration at least six months after the date of its circulation. All Contracting States to the convention or protocol concerned are entitled to participate in the consideration of the proposed amendment at the Legal Committee, even if they are not Member States of the IMO. Amendments may then be adopted by a two-thirds majority of the Contracting States present and voting in the Legal Committee, including those Contracting States not belonging to the IMO, provided that at least one-half of all the Contracting States are present at the time of voting. The amendment is then notified by the IMO to all Contracting States and is deemed to have been accepted eighteen (18) months after the date of such notification, unless within that period not less than one-quarter of the States that were Contracting States at the time of the adoption of the amendment by the Legal Committee have communicated to the IMO that they do not accept the amendment. In that case, the amendment is rejected and without effect. An amendment which is deemed to have been accepted, however, enters into force eighteen (18) months after its acceptance. All Contracting States of the convention or protocol concerned are then bound by the amendment unless they denounce the convention or protocol at least six months before the amendment enters into force. States which become Contracting States of the convention or protocol concerned during the eighteen- month period following the adoption of the amendment by the Legal Committee of the IMO are then bound by the amendment if it enters into force. States that become Contracting States to the convention or protocol concerned more than 18 months after its adoption by the Legal Committee of the IMO are bound by the amendment that has been accepted. The tacit amendment procedure also often provides for certain restrictions on the frequency with which amendments to liability limits may be proposed (e.g. not less than five years after the entry into force of a previous amendment) and for certain restrictions on the percentage increases in such limits. This “tacit acceptance procedure” is a feature of the CLC Convention 1992 (see this maritime law term in this legal dictionary) (art. 15), the Fund Convention 1992 (see this maritime law term in this legal dictionary) (art. 33), the Hazardous and Noxious Substances Convention 1996 (see this maritime law term in this legal dictionary) (art. 48), as well as of the Protocol of 1990 to the Athens Passenger Convention 1974 (see this maritime law term in this legal dictionary) (art. VIII), the Protocol of 2002 to the Athens Passenger Convention 1974 (see this maritime law term in this legal dictionary) (art. 23) and the Protocol of 2003 to the Fund Convention 1992 establishing the International Supplementary Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage (see this maritime law term in this legal dictionary).