Port State Control

Port State Control in Maritime Law

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

The following is a definition of Port State Control, produced by Tetley, in the context of admiralty law: Port State Control is the system whereby the authorities of a State responsible for marine safety are empowered to inspect vessels entering its ports, even if they do not fly the flag of that State, in order to identify ships not complying with applicable norms, especially with respect to safety. Port State Control is typically governed by an international agreement, such as the Paris Memorandum of Understanding (Paris MOU) of July 1, 1982 (binding most European countries and a few others, including Canada) or the Tokyo MOU of December 2, 1993, in force April 1994 (binding many States in the Asia-Pacific region and also including Canada). Other Port State Control MOU’s exist for various other regions of the world, including the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, Latin America, West Africa and the Indian Ocean. These MOU’s typically confer powers of detention on the port states party to them in respect of vessels inspected and found wanting in their compliance with national or international standards, such as the I.S.M. Code. See also A.J. Rodriguez & M.C. Hubbard, “The International Safety Management (ISM) Code: A New Level of Uniformity” (1999) 73 Tul. L. Rev. 1585 at pp. 1615-1616, concerning the Vancouver Declaration of 1998 on enforcement of the Code by signatories of the Tokyo and Paris MOU’ s and also outlining enforcement measures taken by the European Union. The United States, although not party to any Port State Control MOU, nevertheless vigorously enforces the I.S.M. Code through the U.S. Coast Guard by boardings, inspections, detentions and denial of port entry. See Matthew Marshall, “Port State Detentions –what message for insurers?”, an unpublished lecture delivered to the Insurance Institute of London, January 12, 1999 at p. 9 (on file with the author); Rodriguez & Hubbard, (see this legal term in this law dictionary) at pp.1613-1615.