Parallel Registration of Ships

Abstract

In present there is no Swedish legislation regulating bareboat registration of Swedish ships. Despite this absence however shipowners with vessels already registered in the Swedish Vessel Register do not hesitate to take advantage of the positive aspects of bareboat registration and thereby allowing the registration of their ships in another State as well. The fact that there is a lack of legislation in this area has left a legal loophole resulting in Swedish ships being registered in a second State without any regulation providing options or protection for the different parties involved.

With this as a background, the main objective of this thesis is to analyze parallel registration of ships, its consequences and the future of dual registration in Sweden. To fulfil this objective another aim is to impart a collected legal and economical presentation of the problems that may occur when a bareboat chartered vessel is registered in two different States simultaneously.

After having presented the legal basis of regular registration, the functions of ship registration and the legal aspects of parallel registration it is clear that there are both strong arguments in favour of and against bareboat registration. But due to that bareboat registration has already been accepted as a possibility around the world and by the Swedish authorities due to their passivity, the conclusion of this thesis is that the only available solution is to set conditions for this type of registration and thereby make an attempt to minimize negative consequences.

Therefore a practical proposal is to create a system where the responsibilities and obligations connected to ship registration initially are divided between Sweden and the State of the bareboat registration. This division can imply that the private law jurisdiction remains within the Swedish authority while the public law enforcement is left to the State of the bareboat registration. This solution is the most optimal as it allows Sweden to uphold the protection of the private parties as it is intended in the Swedish Maritime Code.