Regulations and legal framework
This domain tests the legal architecture around a ship at sea: which instrument creates the duty, who enforces it, and which certificate or record proves compliance. Questions are situational - you are given a ship, a water area or an inspection finding and must name the rule that actually bites.
Sources, in order of authority
- UNCLOS 1982 is the frame: flag-State jurisdiction on the high seas (Art. 92), the duty to render assistance (Art. 98), innocent passage (Arts. 17–19), and coastal-State enforcement powers.
- IMO instruments create the technical duties: SOLAS, MARPOL, COLREGs, STCW, Load Line 1966, Tonnage 1969, BWM, AFS, plus the codes (ISM, ISPS, IMDG, IMSBC, IGF).
- Flag State transposes them into national law and issues certificates; port State control (Paris MOU, Tokyo MOU, USCG) verifies them and may detain.
Certificates you must be able to place
- Cargo Ship Safety Construction, Safety Equipment and Safety Radio Certificates: maximum 5 years under the 1988 SOLAS Protocol, with annual surveys endorsed.
- IOPP (Annex I), ISPP, IAPP, ISSC, and the ISM pair DOC (company) plus SMC (ship); the MLC certificate for ships of 500 GT and over on international voyages.
- Passenger Ship Safety Certificate: maximum 12 months.
Master's authority
The master's overriding duty is to render assistance to persons in distress (SOLAS V/33; UNCLOS Art. 98). It overrides commercial pressure, and deviation for that purpose is not a breach of the contract of carriage.
Worked example
A 4,500 GT cargo ship berths in Le Havre with an expired Safety Equipment Certificate and no fire-drill entry for three weeks. The certificate is a 5-year document with annual endorsements, so expiry is a survey failure, not a clerical slip. Fire drills are required monthly for every crew member, with entry in the official log (SOLAS III/19.2.2). Three weeks without a record implies a missed drill and, through it, an ISM non-conformity in the safety-management system. The Paris MOU inspector may detain, notify the flag State and the recognised organisation, and require reinspection before departure - and the certificate is only reissued after survey, not by the master's declaration.
Traps that cost marks
- Confusing detention (ship held in port) with a ban (ship refused entry across the region for repeated detentions).
- Assuming SOLAS covers every vessel: it applies to ships on international voyages, with tonnage thresholds below which several chapters relax.
- Mixing up who issues what: the flag State issues statutory certificates; the classification society acts only as a recognised organisation on its behalf.
- Forgetting that MARPOL and Load Line run on their own protocols and their own validity rules.