Lex Portus (Nov 2020)
Public administration of safety of navigation: multi-level challenges and answers
Abstract
The article addresses the advantages and shortcomings of multi-level system of ensuring safety of navigation. The principle of the navigation safety is considered as fundamental determinant of changes in maritime laws and regulations at the international, regional and national levels. At the same time, the most important feature of the modern system of ensuring the safety of navigation is its administration at the national level, where the states and their authorities act simultaneously in several guises: the flag state, the port state and the coastal state. Each such hypostasis has its own set of rights and obligations. The peculiarities of the process of regionalization of the PSC regimes and the associated emergence of regional peculiarities in procedures and practices are emphasized separately. This trend has both positive and negative effects on the enforcement of regulations in the field of safety of navigation. The problem of interaction between different stakeholders is examined on the example of countering substandard shipping. The practice of Ukraine as to implementation and realization of its liabilities under the international agreements in the sphere of ensuring the navigation safety is being analyzed. Emphasis is made on the necessity for not only declarative, but also a real compliance with the requirements of the principal imperative for maritime activity to ensure navigation. It is pointed the importance of the construction of organizational national procedures of implementation of the international standards of ensuring the navigation safety on the basis of the principle of “good governance”. In addition, international cooperation is key to improving the effectiveness of national PSC systems. Moreover, such cooperation should go beyond regional MOUs in order to implement the best world practices and procedures.
Keywords
