This article has been written by Prathamesh More, pursuing a Diploma in Advanced Contract Drafting, Negotiation and Dispute Resolution from Lawsikho.com.

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We all are aware of laws that work on farming, such as Criminal law, Family jurisprudence, even laws regarding freedom of manner of speaking. But when it comes to the incidents that take place in water bodies particularly seas and oceans, the above-mentioned laws do not work. There are specific laws that govern nautical issues on open water and those laws belong in Maritime Law .

The Origins of Maritime Law

Maritime laws originated from the times when exile of goods and people by water was one of the most ancient types of commerce. The Mediterranean Sea was one of the body of water bodies where the early Egyptians, Greeks and Phoenicians carried their trade extensively. It is believed that the oldest nautical code was written in the Island of Rhodes, Greece. From a historical expression Maritime law is developed from the police of merchants. The rules and procedures which governs the meaty aspect of law or the adjective of maritime law is known as admiralty law. however, in common parlance admiralty law and maritime police are used interchangeably.

What does Maritime law imply ?

At present Maritime law is considered as the most crucial govern police regarding any character of event taking set on capable water system. Governments, corporations and individuals who do commerce on sea give utmost prize to the Maritime police because it helps them make certain the appropriate demeanor of all the people and institutions working on sea department of commerce and besides fairly barter. This has changed the way commerce is done on open water system .
As mentioned above Maritime law is besides known as admiralty law. It is a body of laws, conventions, and treaties that govern secret maritime business and other nautical matters, like shipping or offences and disputes .
These laws are not limited to the transportation system of goods or people. They besides involve how companies treat their workers, how the workers get paid or even how their protection is ensured while working on board a vessel .
The four principles of nautical law are :

• maritime condom
• navigation security
• commercial heart and preventing contamination
• environmental protection

Maritime police in India

Maritime law or Shipping jurisprudence in India, as elsewhere, is a wide-ranging ramify of the law which has within its boundaries, carriage of goods by ocean ; nautical insurance ; laws of ownership ; and registration of ships ; ship sale and build contract ; ship finance ; mortgages ; law of collisions ; salvage ; tow ; piloting ; maritime pollution laws ; custom laws ; port laws ; etc. All these versatile aspects are covered by legislations of India .
Maritime Law of India which is developed over a hundred, from colonial times sourcing from the following acts :
admiralty Offences ( Colonial ) Act, 1849 ; The Inland Steam-vessels Act, 1917 ; The Coasting Vessels Act, 1838 ; The indian Registration of Ships Act, 1841 ; The indian Ports Act, 1908 ; The amerind Merchant Shipping Act, 1923 ; The Merchant Seamen ( Litigation ) Act, 1946 ; The Control of Shipping Act, 1947 ; Territorial Water Jurisdiction Act, 1878 ; etc .
The Shipping Industry is besides governed under the rules and regulations framed by International Maritime Organization ( IMO ) .

Maritime Contracts

First of all, contracts are the product of proposals, toleration, considerations and negotiations which are completed by the performance of the necessity provisions mentioned in an agreement. It works similarly in the Maritime Industry. But only in a determine business such as shipping do companies run to the government when narrow negotiations get baffling .
When a abridge is made relating to a ship it is referred to in Maritime contracts. They are different from general contracts. When goods are sold, there can be confusion as to when each party ’ sulfur possession begins and ends. For example, a shipping party had an accident ; Who suffered the loss ? The seller ? The buyer ? Or the embark company ? There are respective types of contracts each having its own feature which helps in knowing the same .
A Maritime contract is an agreement pertain to the operations, seafaring, maintenance and compensate or provision of a vessel .
here are the 10 Types of Maritime Contracts :

• lease Agreements

There are four types of rent agreement in Maritime—voyage rent, time lease, bareboat charter, and “ lump-sum ” contract. Under the voyage rent a ship is chartered for a one-way ocean trip between specific ports with a specified cargo at a negociate rate of freight. On time charter, the charterer hires the transport for a definite menstruation of time, for a specify round-trip voyage, or, occasionally, for a state one-way ocean trip. Whereas on a ocean trip charter the owner bears all the expenses of the voyage ( discipline to agreement about costs of loading and discharging ), on clock time lease the charterer bears the cost of bunkers and stores consumed .
The charter which is not used all the time in ordinary commercial practice is a bareboat charter. The owner of the ship delivers it up to the charterer for the agree time period without crowd, stores, policy, or any early provision. Contracts can besides be arranged on a lump-sum basis, when an owner agrees to ship a given measure of a stated cargo from one port to another for a declared sum of money .

• wharfage and Dockage Agreement

On the harbor shore the ships are docked to load and unload cargo or passengers around a structure which is called a ‘ Wharf ’ and ‘ Wharfage ’ is the duty paid for getting the access to use the wharf. Whereas the build, repairing, loading and unloading of the ships and ferries takes home at a dock. The owner of the ships or ferries have to pay a certain come of tip at the dock which in Maritime terms is called ‘ Dockage ’ .
such claims come under the legal power of admiralty courts. This is because a wharf is a necessary end point of every voyage. All kinds of ships, vessels and water-craft of every name and description whether employed in carrying cargo or passengers or engaged in the fisheries need Wharf accommodation for navigation. therefore, wharfage is must for the ships and it besides helps ensure the benefit of everyone interested therein .

• Ship Repair Contracts

By the term itself, Ship Repair Contracts includes alimony, ship conversions, modifications, major and minor damage repairs. It is the most authoritative factor of the transportation and shipbuilding industry .
The embark repair procedure does not take a lot fourth dimension to complete. It is like the new construction operation, except that it is performed on a smaller scale than the usual construction procedure. It requires a proper coordination and intensive bid process for ship animate contracts. normally the navy, commercial ship owners and early marine structure owners are the animate work customers .
Contracts can be tauten Fixed Price ( FFP ), Firm Fixed Price Award Fee ( FFPAF ), Cost Plus Fixed Fee ( CPFF ), Cost Plus Award Fee ( CPAF ) or pressing animate contracts. The animate process starts in the marketing area when the shipyard is asked for a Request for Proposal ( RFP ) or an invitation for Bid ( IFB ). The IFB contract is awarded to the lowest bid price, while an RFP award can be based on factors early than price. The cost estimate and the marriage proposal for the repair contract are prepared by the rectify estimate groups under REP condense. Whereas, Bid estimates broadly include worker-hours and engage rates, materials, disk overhead, particular overhaul costs, overtime and shift premiums, other fees, facilities cost of money and, based on these, the calculate price of the contract. A output plan is created ampere soon as the contract is signed .

• Preferred Ship Mortgages

To obtain boat loans “ Preferred Ship Mortgage ” is a adept option. It is specifically used for vessels that are over 26 feet in length. For boats that are smaller than that, the title and a notation of the security interest recorded on the title should be enough to protect the lender.

In the common terms a mortgage is a security on a loan which is given by the node to the lender, in the lapp way a ship mortgage is a security system on a loan given by the shipowner to the lender ( mortgagee ). There are three parts in a embark mortgage : the mortgage loan, the mortgage document ( deed ) and the rights derived from the mortgage deed onto the money lender. even if we say a ship mortgage is similar to the other types of mortgages, it placid differs from early types of mortgage in three ways. First, the privileged claims could have a higher rate over that of mortgagee against the ship. Second, ships normally move between jurisdictions. And third, it is constantly believed that a ship is at risk of partial or total damages at sea and this point is mentioned in the Mortgage contract every clock time .

• Seafarer ’ south Employment Contracts

Seafarer ’ south employment contracts gained importance since the enforcement of the Maritime Labor Convention ( MLC ). MLC mandates the shipowner/employer to have written employment agreements with all seafarers working on seagoing ships. The requital of wages of seafarers shall match the standards formed by MLC .
This contract helps the mariner to know about the work conditions, working hours, wages and facilities provided on the vessel. This condense is authoritative from the Fair- Trade Practice position .
The agreement must be signed by both the parties i.e., the mariner and the employer/shipowner .

• marine Insurance Contracts

indemnity is a contract, in which an person or a caller obtains fiscal security or reimbursement against losses from an Insurance Company. similarly, in maritime such indemnity is called Marine Insurance. It is used to indemnify the insured in a manner and to the interest thereby agreed against marine losses. Like an individual, a embark ship’s company besides has to pay premiums to the indemnity company but in this diligence the sum is always huge .

Fundamentals of Marine Insurance :

1. insurable matter to ,
2. extreme adept Faith ,
3. The doctrine of Indemnity ,
4. subrogation ,
5. Warranties ,
6. Proximate cause ,
7. assignment and nomination of the policy, and
8. Return of premium .

• Marine salvage

When a transport or its cargo is trapped in the perils of the sea it costs loss of lives and property on the sea. To compensate the families of the people who lost their lives on the ship or to compensate the company which provided its cargo to get shipped from one put to the other a contract which is called Marine salvage is made between the seamen or manufacturing company and shipping company .
by and large, in sign salvages, before the beginning of the salvage operations there is a contract between the rescuer and the owner of the cargo or vessel for a fix wage regardless of the convalescence. The objective of the marine salvage is to provide an economic inducement to seamen to save their place as a reward for their services .
Marine salvage arises when a ship is in distress due to some kind of emergency like hurricane or a localize danger like the attacks that took place near Somalia by the Somali Pirates or any early technical foul risk .

• Dredging Contracts

dredge is the operation of excavating material from a water system environment. It is used for improving existing water features ; reshaping farming and water features to alter drain, navigation and commercial use ; reconstruct dams and other controls for streams and shorelines and to recover valuable mineral deposits and marine biography having commercial measure. To carry out such operations a contract is made between the dredging contractile organ and its node who wants to carry out dredging for the sake of commercial determination .
A dredge contract not only requires technical foul cognition associated with marine civil engineer construction projects but besides maritime expertness about the finical constraints of the operation of a dredging vessel coupled with submission with nautical ship regulations .

• contract of affreightment

The ecstasy contract between the Shipper and the Carrier to carry goods from point A to B is called a Contract of Affreightment. The bill of cargo is evidence of this sign. It is the duty of the Carrier to receive and deliver the goods in the lapp condition it received it in. The carrier has the right to be paid for its services. The shipper has the obligation to get the goods to the carrier and to pay the carrier for its services. In turn the Shipper has the right to have the goods delivered to it in the same condition that it was delivered to the Carrier in .

• Ship Management Agreements

A vessel is a big model of a transport which carries cargo or any other material in huge quantity and all the staff working on the vessel are not always well mindful of the technicalities of the vessel, the ship owners hire a transport management caller to look after their vessel as the employees of the ship management companies are well mindful of the technical issues of a vessel. In earlier days, functions like fiscal management of vessels, use of personnel, maintaining the vessel, technical supervision, operation, etc. These functions used to cost a distribute of prison term which made the shipping march quite slowly. But now, the shipowners normally hire resources to manage the operations carried on ship while supplying goods .
It is necessity to employ experts to manage the operations of the ship because a embark is always expensive, all the devices used in a ship, all the material used in a ship costs a fortune. therefore, having professionals to look after the transport operations is better. Hence, the ship owners delegate their functions in respective areas to ship management companies .

conclusion

Maritime law is a kind of law that deals with issues which are far from a man ’ s reach. It is quite different from the laws that work on land. Contract is the necessity part of the Maritime law. There is no action that can take place without any kind of agreement in water bodies. even if for amusement in the sea like aqualung dive or water skiing, we have to sign an agreement to get access for the same. Henceforth, Maritime Contracts are valuable and necessary for placid negotiations of terms and conditions taking place on open water between the abridge parties.

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