Monday, 1st April 2019

106th session of the IMO Legal Committee – International Group attendance

The International Group took a full and active role at the 106th session of the IMO Legal Committee that was held at the IMO’s headquarters in London on 27-29th March 2019.

The Legal Committee's main agenda items included consideration of a new work output to develop a Unified Interpretation (UI) on the shipowner’s right to limit liability under the IMO Conventions (as proposed by the Group along with other co-sponsors), a review of those IMO Conventions under the purview of the Committee with respect to autonomous and semi-autonomous ships, the use fraudulent ship registries, monitoring the implementation of the HNS Protocol 2010 and the provision of financial security in case of abandonment of seafarers under the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC). The Group took a full and active role in the Committee’s discussions and welcomed the progress on each of these important work items, in particular on the Committee’s agreement for a new work output to develop a UI on the shipowner’s right to limit liability under the IMO Conventions. This work will be co-ordinated by the Group with interested States and NGOs in the intersessional period up to the 107th session of the Legal Committee that will be held in 2020.