Draft Bill to amend the Spanish State Ports & the Shipping Act to update the rules governing maritime carriage to international & European regulations

On March 1st 2022, the Government approved the Draft Bill to amend the Spanish State Ports and the Shipping Act to update the rules governing maritime carriage to international and European regulations, improving its competitiveness in the shipping market.

Among the proposals of amendment of the Shipping Act, the following stand out,

-?Regulation of new Certificate of Registry, which replaces the current Navigation Patent, with the aim of harmonizing Spanish documentation with international practice. This new Certificate shall be issued in Spanish and English (Articles 78, 79 and 80).?

- New maritime liens are proposed -under the terms provided by Article 6 of the International Convention on Maritime Liens and Mortgages 1993- in favour of suppliers, ship repairers and ship agents providing services to national or foreign ships in our territory (Article 124).

-?Termination of the bareboat charters contracts in case of judicial sale of the ship (Article 196).This amendment already makes it clear that our legislation opts for a clean title effect (absolute purge of claims) of the judicial sale of a ship, which places Spain in a suitable position to adopt the Convention on Judicial Sale of Ships being drafted in UNCITRAL.

-?A new compulsory insurance for accidents of passengers in the charter of pleasure crafts is proposed to be required (Article 312).

- The limits of liability of the port handling operator (port terminal) are equated with those of the carrier to avoid differences in the legal regime determining the exercise of actions in this area (Article 334).

- The proposal of amendment makes it clear that any liability arising from collision shall be governed by the rules of the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules of Law with respect to Collisions between Vessels, irrespective of the flag of the ship, nationality or residence of the parties or the place of the collision (Article 339).

- The proposal of amendment includes the possibility of instituting the special proceeding for the constitution of the limitation fund calculated under the 1996 LLMC in cases where claims subject to limitation are pursued thought arbitration proceeding (Articles 393, 394 and 489).

- Limits of liability are adapted to the IMO Resolution of amending the 1996 LLMC.

- Counter security for the arrest of ships is reduced from the current minimum of 15% of the amount of the claim to 5%. Additionally, claims for crew′s wages secured by maritime lien shall be exempted to provide counter security (Article 472).

- Finally, the proposal includes a new proceedings for cases of abandonment of pleas ure crafts (Articles 525 et seq.), which aims to solve the severe economic and environmental problems that ports and other nautical or sports facilities are suffering due to the high number of non-payments by owners.