The European Union and International Maritime Law - Lessons for the Asia-Pacific Region?

• Author: Henrik Ringbom
• Position: Professor II, Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law, Faculty of Law, University of Oslo, Norway; Adjunct Professor (Docent) Department of Law, Åbo Akademi University, Turku/Åbo, Finland
• Pages: 67-77

(2016) 30 ANZ Mar LJ

67

THE EURO PEAN UNION AND INTERNATIONAL MARITIME LAW – LESSONS

FOR THE ASIA-PACIFIC REG ION?

He nrik Ring bo m*

1 Introductio n

The European Union (EU) has established itself as a key player in international maritime regulation in a relatively

short space of time. In 30 or so years it has proceeded from being a group of states with their own national policies

and p references on maritime matters to a region where shipping is highly regulated and international actions

closely coordinated.

The process has not been problem-free, and certainly not unanimously endorsed by its own member state

representatives in the maritime sector. The EU’s entry into the maritime policy-making arena has sometimes been

likened to the i nfamous bull’s entry into the china shop . However, with more than 40 legal acts in place and an

impressive constitutional and institutional apparatus to make sure these rules are implemented and enforced, it

seems uncontested that the EU by now is a key international player in almost any aspect of maritime regulatio n.

The EU’s role and rules in maritime regulation illustrate that regional rules in shipping need not necessarily be in

violation of international law and need not even require a very heavy institutional structure in their suppor t.

In view of this, this article asks whether a similar development to wards increased regionalisation could be an

option for other maritime regions in the world, in particular the Asia-Pacific region. The focus is purely on the

legal and administrative feasibility, rather than the desirability, of such a development.

In order to explo re this matter further, the article begins by making so me general observations on regional rule-

making in shipping and on the EU’s regulatory role (section 2). The latter half of the text (section 3) includes a

closer examination of five different examples of how the EU maritime policy operates in more detail, in particular

as regards their relationship to the IMO rules. The nature of the measures, the applicable restraints and the

transferability to the Asia-Pacific region is briefly discussed for each measure, while section 4 offers so me

concluding remarks of a more general nature.

2 On the EU’s shipping policy

2.1 General

The EU, like the Asia-Pacific, is heavily dependent on maritime transport. It consists of 28 Member States, all of

which are members of the IMO and most of which ha ve a considerable coastline and/or fleet. Added to these are

the three states parties to the European Free Trade Agreement (EFTA) (Nor way, Iceland and Lichtenstein) that

are linked to the EU internal market through the ‘European Economic Area’, which are also subject to the shipping

rules of the EU.

In terms of numbers, 90 per cent of the EU’s external freight, and more than 40 per cent of the internal trade in

the region, is seaborne. Around one third of global shipping has an EU port as origin or destination. The EU/EEA

states are also significant flag states. 25 per cent of the world tonnage is registered in and flying the flag of an

EU/EEA Member State, but the share of the world’s tonnage that is controlled by EU interest is estimated to be

around 40 per cent and increasing.1 These figures are not dramatically different from those of the Asia-Pacific

region.2

However, it is uncontested that shipping is a highly international business and therefore needs global rules to

govern it. Not only is the geographical scope of the activity global, as ships travel the whole world, but operators

may also easily choo se the jurisdiction of their operations by more or less freely choosing the flag state of their

* Professor II, Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law, Faculty of Law, University of Oslo, Norway; Adjunct Professor (Docent)

Department of Law, Åbo Akademi University, Turku/Åbo, Finland

1 See e.g. ‘The Economic Value of the EU Shipping Industry’, Study prepared by Oxford Economics for the European Community

Shipowners’ Association, April 2014, available at www.ecsa.eu/images/2014-04-

01%20Oxford%20Economics%20ECSA%20Report%20FINAL.pdf

2 See e.g. UNCTAD Review of Maritime Transport 2015, pp. 35-37 and 43-44, available at

http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/rmt2015_en.pdf