582 research outputs found
The Nomenclature and Legal Classification of Pleasure Crafts
No full textThe need to regulate the phenomenon of nautical tourism, strongly felt at least in the Mediterranean area, has led the Italian legislator to provide a special framework for pleasure crafts different from the general discipline of the Italian Navigation Code.
The provisions contained in the Italian Sailing Code (the so called “Co-dice della Nautica da Diporto”) offer a legal classification of crafts destined to pleasure navigation (distinguishing, depending on the length, between “unità da diporto”, “nave da diporto”, “imbarcazione da diporto”, “natante da diporto”), thereby specifying the scope of the definition of “ship” laid down in Article 136 of the Italian Navigation Code.
The latter, indeed, in its first paragraph, after including any construc-tion destined to carriage on water, also for towage or fishing purposes, refers to craft intended for pleasure sailing or other purposes as well.
Moreover, the adoption of EU directives, aimed at harmonizing the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States and the characteristics of pleasure craft, has extended the definition of “watercraft” to new categories and purposes. Therefore, the regulatory framework, already repeatedly revised, is still evolving.
The article will focus on the analysis of the current Italian and Europe-an regulatory framework, on the existing discrimen between merchant vessels and pleasure crafts and on the identification of the consequences related to this distinction, with particular regard to the relevant requirements and limits laid down for the category of pleasure crafts
An Overview of the Discipline Applicable to the Transport Performed by Successive Carriers
No full textThe Convention relative au contrat de transport international de marchandises par route (known as C.M.R., signed in Geneva on 19th May 1956), in its Chap-ter VI regulates the factispecies in which a transportation, even if governed by a single contract, is performed by successive road carriers. Since this is quite common in practice, both in the road transport sector and in one involving several different transport modes, it would be very useful to standardize the regulations.
This paper carries out a comparative-contrastive analysis between the provisions of articles 34 - 40 of the C.M.R. and art. 1700 of the Italian Civil Code, the latter related to the so called “trasporto cumulativo”, which can be as-similated to the figure of carriage performed by successive carriers.
Both C.M.R. and Italian Civil Code provisions have much in common and seem to provide a substantially similar discipline to the factispecies. Never-theless, they diverge significantly on an essential point. The C.M.R. states that Chapter VI applies only in the event that successive carriers are all road carriers: if carriage includes non-road routes, in the absence of a standard reg-ulation, national rules on multimodal transport or the discipline on trasport su-perposé should be applied. On the contrary, the Italian national legislation makes no such distinction, therefore art. 1700 of the Civil Code applies in cases of successive carriers that operate using modes of transport other than road transport.
The different approach of the two regulatory systems leads to signifi-cant consequences in terms of the applicable discipline – especially with re-gard to the liability of carriers, the interruption of the prescription and the de-termination of the delay – to cases of successive carriers who use different modes of transport to complete a single contract of international carriage.
Finally, the paper, in order to give a more complete framework of all the issues involved, focuses on the distinction between the factispecies in anal-ysis and those cases where the contracting carrier hires subcontractors or acts as a freight forwarder for the completion of certain segments of the carriage
A Study on the Floating Units Operating in the Oil and Gas Offshore Fields: the Need for a Juridical Placement and the Quest for the Applicable Discipline
No full textFrom the prehistoric ones to those of the Vikings, from those used by the ancient Greeks to the most modern vessels, ships have always played a key role in the course of human events during times of peace, with the flour-ishing of trade, as well as in times of war.
Over the centuries, ships have been subjected to many changes in de-sign, structure, technical characteristics, and functions performed. In particu-lar, in the last few decades, there has been a big boost in the number of types of vessels operating at sea, which has led to the need of a more in depth study on the concept of “ship”. The issue is of prime importance, as it affects mat-ters related to various areas of law and economics – as insurance regulation, environmental protection, and international trade on a large scale -, involving transverse interests belonging to different stakeholders’ categories.
For these reasons this article aims to deepen the issue concerning the delimitation of the concept of “ship”, in particular regarding the possibility of including in that notion also structures which do not fall within the traditional dogmatic categories, such as the so-called Floating Storage Units (FSUs) and Floating Production Storage and Offloading Units (FPSOs).
The research, developed mainly on the basis of international sources, focuses especially on the definition of FSU and FPSO. These types of float-ing crafts, as well as being without an express legal regulation, have a peculiar characteristic – i.e. being anchored to the seabed – which greatly enhances the scope of the debate that has developed in Doctrine and Case Law.
The given interpretation, in the sense of including FSUs and FPSOs in the definition of “ship”, goes also through the analysis of some of the most important decisions of the Italian and foreign Courts which have addressed the issue. These judgments are undoubtedly a valuable tool to fill what, in fact, seems to be a major legislative gap.
The conclusions reached are, to some extent, linked to the need to ap-ply to FSUs and FPSOs the international discipline relating to damages re-sulting from oil pollution and particularly the rules provided by the Interna-tional Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage (CLC 1992)
From the Cold Chain to the Improvement of the Traceability Systems in the Transport of Perishable Foodstuffs: Tools to Strengthen Consumer Safety
No full textNowadays the food industry is constantly evolving and the manage-ment of transport of perishable goods transport is receiving more and more attention, both in practice and in the scientific literature.
Due to their chemical and/or physiological characteristics, food prod-ucts are more susceptible to severe and irreparable damage during transport, especially if the storage temperature is not kept controlled. Without question, the challenge of ensuring the quality of transport of perishable goods and, in particular, the efficiency of the so called “cold chain” require vigilant man-agement of both people and processes involved in the entire food chain, throughout the transport phase from the packing at the shipper’s warehouse to the delivery.
At European level, a first discipline concerning the transport of perish-able goods was included in the Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council No. 178/2002, which established the general principles and re-quirements of food law, introduced the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and fixed procedures in the field of food safety. Subsequently, in 2004, through the introduction of the so called “Hygiene Package”, the entire discipline was deeply reformed in order to guarantee the respect of the new set of sanitary and phytosanitary rules concerning all the activities involved in the food chain included the transport of foodstuffs.
The legal framework is integrated, at international level, by the “Agreement on the International Carriage of Perishable Foodstuffs and on the Special Equipment to be used for such Carriage”, also called ATP Treaty, which was introduced in 1970 by the UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe).
The aforementioned legislations will be analyzed with the purpose of reaching a critical and comprehensive overview of the current legal regime concerning the transport of foodstuffs, focusing on the potential legal impli-cations which derive from the technological innovations in the field of trace-ability along the foodstuffs supply chain
Guarantees in the Shipbuilding Contract, in Light of the Italian Legislative Framework
No full textThe article focuses on the discipline applicable to the shipbuilding contract, with special focus on the guarantees
The Contractor and the Insured Party in the Cargo Insurance Contract in Maritime Transport: Commercial Practice and Comparative Analysis
No full textThis chapter deals with an analysis of the insurance contract of transported goods, focusing on the factispecies of insurance for the benefit of third parties and of those it may concern (called “assicurazione per conto altrui e assicurazione per conto di chi spetta” in the Italian legal system). Firstly, the paper examines the main legal sources of the aforementioned types of contract as well as the importance of the operative practice, especially the British one, which is of primary importance for the discipline of the whole subject. In addition, attention is paid to the main features of the insurance contract for the benefit of third parties and of those it may concern, mainly highlighting issues pertaining to the juridical interpretation of this category of insurance contracts. An indepth analysis is conducted on the figures of the contractor and the insured party, especially taking into consideration the effects of the indemnity principle in line with the active legal capacity in order to claim the insurance compensation, by studying of the most important jurisprudential cases as well
The Interrelations between Compulsory Insurance of Shipowners for Maritime Claims and the Shipowner’s Limitation of Liability: a Case of Lack of Coordination in Italy among Disciplines of Different but Complementary Subjects
No full textOver the last century, legislative measures that impose mandatory insur-ance in the field of maritime navigation have been introduced with increasing frequency, on both national and an international basis. The outcome of this regulatory process is represented by the introduction of a system of rules aimed at ensuring better protection to injured parties and restoring competition among economic operators, providing measures to limit the presence of ships that do not comply with adequate standards. The set of these regulatory instruments is called the “Third Maritime Safety Package” and the Directive 2009/20/ EC, on the insurance of shipowners for maritime claims, is included as an integral part thereof, being applied to ships of 300 gross tonnage or more and providing for the obligation of shipowners to take out adequate insurance covering their ships. The choice of introducing legislation by means of a Directive has led to differences in the implementation process of the individual Member States, rais-ing some issues mainly linked to the identification of the subjects, risks and type of ships that should fall within the scope of the Directive. In this context, as the fulfilment of the obligations imposed by the Di-rective is under each State’s competence, the article will analyze the approach adopted by the Italian Legislator through the Legislative Decree no. 111/2012 which introduced rules aimed at complying with the “new” insurance regime and unfortunately led to some inconsistencies in the Italian legal framework in the sector, especially in relation to the discipline concerning the shipowner’s limita-tion of liability
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