Key Benefits:
Original text
(State on 13 July 2011)
(1) The owner of a seagoing ship may limit its liability to the amount determined by s. 3 of this Convention for claims arising out of one of the following causes, unless the event giving rise to the debt was caused by the owner's personal fault:
(2) In this Convention, "personal injury" means claims for compensation resulting from death and bodily injury; the term "property damage" means all other claims referred to in subs. (1) above.
(3) The right of a shipowner to limit its liability in the cases referred to in s. (1) of this section is recognized even if its liability derives from the ownership, possession, custody or control of the ship without evidence of its fault or that of persons to whom it must respond.
(4) This section does not apply to:
(5) If the owner of a ship is authorized to claim a claim in respect of a creditor for damage resulting from the same event, the respective claims shall be compensated, and the provisions of this Convention shall not apply The balance, if any.
(6) The lex fori shall determine the person to whom the evidence shows that the event giving rise to the claim was caused by the owner's personal fault.
(7) The fact of relying on limitation of liability does not imply recognition of that responsibility.
(1) Limitation of liability determined by s. 3 of this Convention, applies to all claims of the head of personal injury and property damage arising out of the same event, without having regard to claims arising out of or arising from another event.
(2) Where all claims resulting from the same event exceed the limits of liability as determined by s. 3, the overall amount corresponding to these limits may be set up in a single limitation fund.
(3) The fund so constituted shall be allocated exclusively to the settlement of claims to which the limitation of liability is enforceable.
(4) After the establishment of the fund, no right may be exercised, for the same claims, on other property of the owner by the creditors to which the fund is reserved, provided that the limitation fund is actually available to the Benefit of the applicant.
(1) The amounts to which the owner of a ship may limit its liability in the cases provided for in section 1 are:
(2) In each part of the limitation fund, the distribution shall be between the creditors, in proportion to the amount of their recognized claims.
(3) If, before the allocation of the fund, the owner of a ship has paid in whole or in part one of the claims referred to in s. 1, para. (1), it is entitled to take, due to competition, the place and place of its creditor in the distribution of the fund, but only to the extent that, according to the law of the country in which the fund is constituted, that creditor could have brought to justice The claim against the owner.
(4) Where the owner establishes that he may subsequently be forced to pay in whole or in part one of the claims referred to in Article 1, paragraph (1), the court or other competent authority of the country where the fund is constituted May order that a sufficient sum be provisionally reserved to allow the owner to subsequently assert his rights in the fund, under the conditions set out in the preceding paragraph.
(5) In determining the limit of the liability of a ship owner in accordance with the provisions of this section, a ship of less than 300 tons shall be deemed to be a ship of that tonnage.
(6) The franc referred to in this section is considered to be related to a unit consisting of sixty-five and a half milligrams of gold in the title of nine hundred thousand million. The amounts referred to in par. (1) of this Article shall be converted into the national currency of the State in which the limitation of liability is invoked; the conversion shall be effected by the value of that currency in relation to the unit defined above, on the date on which The owner of the ship shall have constituted the fund, made the payment or provided, in accordance with the law of that State, any equivalent guarantee.
(7) For the purposes of this Convention, tonnage shall be calculated as follows:
1 See also prot. Of Dec 21. 1979 (RS 0.747.331.521 ).
Without prejudice to the provisions of Art. 3, para. (2) of this Convention, the rules on the constitution and distribution of the possible fund and all rules of procedure shall be determined by the national law of the State in which the fund is constituted.
(1) In all cases where an owner is authorized to limit his liability under this Convention, and when the ship or any other ship or property belonging to the same owner has been seized within the jurisdiction of a State Or that a guarantor or other guarantee has been provided to avoid the seizure, the court or any other competent authority of that State may order the release of the seizure of the ship or any other property or the release of the guarantee Provided that it is proved that the owner has already provided sufficient security or other Guarantee for an amount equal to the full limit of its liability, as set out in this Convention, and that the surety or guarantee thus provided is effectively available to the applicant, in accordance with its rights.
(2) Where, in the circumstances referred to in subs. (1) of this section, a surety or other guarantee has already been given:
The court or other competent authority shall order the release of the seizure of the ship or the release of the surety or other guarantee when the conditions indicated in par. (1) of this section shall be in place.
(3) The provisions of s. (1) and (2) of this Article shall also apply, if the surety or any other guarantee already given is less than the entire limit of liability under the empire of this Convention, provided that a surety or any other Sufficient guarantee is given for the difference.
(4) Where the owner has provided security or another guarantee for an amount equal to the full extent of his liability in accordance with this Convention, such security or other guarantee may be used for the payment of All claims deriving from the same event and for which the owner can limit his liability.
(5) The proceedings relating to actions taken by application of the provisions of this Convention and the time limits in which those actions are to be carried out shall be governed by the national law of the Contracting State in which the trial takes place.
(1) In this Agreement, the liability of the owner of the ship shall include the responsibility of the ship itself.
(2) Subject to subs. (3) of this Article, the provisions of this Convention shall apply to the charterer, the shipowner, the owner-manager, as well as to the master, crew and other servants of the owner, the charterer, the shipowner, or The manager-manager, acting in the performance of their duties, in the same manner as they apply to the owner himself, without the overall amount of the limited liability of the owner and all those other persons of the chief Physical and material damage resulting from the same event may exceed the fixed amounts Pursuant to s. 3 of this Convention.
(3) Where an action is directed against the master or crew members, they may limit their liability even if the event which is the cause of the claim is due to their personal fault. However, if the master or crew member is at the same time sole owner, co-owner, charterer, shipowner or manager-manager, the provision of this paragraph shall apply only where it is a fault committed in its capacity Captain or crew member.
This Convention shall apply whenever the owner of a ship or other person having the same right under s. 6, limit or seek to limit its liability to the courts of one of the Contracting States or attempt to release a ship or other seized property or surety or any other guarantee in the territory of one of those States.
Nevertheless, any Contracting State shall have the right to exclude wholly or partly from the benefit of that Convention any non-Contracting State or any person who has not, at the time when it takes measures to limit its liability or for Obtain, in accordance with s. 5, the discharge of a ship, or any other property seized or surety or any other guarantee, habitual residence or principal place of business in one of the Contracting States or whose ship it wishes to limit The flag of one of the Contracting States shall not, as of the above mentioned date, beats the flag of one of the Contracting States.
Each Contracting State reserves the right to determine which other categories of vessels shall be assimilated to seagoing vessels for the purposes of this Convention.
This Convention shall be open for signature by the States represented at the tenth session of the Diplomatic Conference on Maritime Law.
This Convention shall be ratified and the instruments of ratification shall be deposited with the Government of Belgium, which shall notify the deposit by diplomatic means to all signatory and acceding States.
(1) This Convention shall enter into force six months after the date of the deposit of at least ten instruments of ratification, of which at least five are issued by States which each have a global tonnage equal to or greater than one million gross tons.
(2) For each signatory State, ratifying the Convention after the date of the deposit of the instrument of ratification determining the entry into force as set out in s. (1) of this Article, it shall enter into force six months after the deposit of its instrument of ratification.
Any State not represented at the tenth session of the Diplomatic Conference of Maritime Law may accede to this Convention.
The instruments of accession will be deposited with the Belgian Government, which will notify all signatory and acceding States through diplomatic channels.
The Convention shall enter into force for the acceding State six months after the date of the deposit of its instrument of accession, but not before the date of entry into force of the Convention as laid down in Art. 11 (1).
Each of the High Contracting Parties shall have the right to denounce this Convention at any time after its entry into force. However, such denunciation shall take effect only one year after the date of receipt of the notification of denunciation to the Government of Belgium, which shall inform the Belgian Government through diplomatic channels of all signatory and acceding States.
(1) Any High Contracting Party may, at the time of ratification, accession, or at any subsequent time notify in writing to the Government of Belgium that this Convention applies to the territories or certain territories for which it provides the International relations.
The Convention shall be applicable to the said Territories six months after the date of receipt of such notification by the Government of Belgium, but not before the date of entry into force of this Convention in respect of that High Contracting Party;
(2) Any High Contracting Party that has entered into a declaration under subs. (1) of this Article, extending the application of the Convention to the territories or to certain territories for which it ensures international relations, may at any time notify the Belgian Government that the Convention ceases to apply to the Territories in question.
Such denunciation shall take effect one year after the date of receipt by the Belgian Government of the notification of denunciation;
(3) The Belgian Government shall, through diplomatic channels, notify all signatory and acceding States of any notification received by it under this Article.
Any High Contracting Party may, upon the expiration of the three-year period following the entry into force of this Convention, request the meeting of a Conference to decide on all proposals for the revision of This Convention.
Any High Contracting Party wishing to avail itself of this option will notify the Belgian Government which will convene the Conference within six months.
This Convention replaces and repeals, for relations between States that ratify or accede to it, the International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules concerning the Limitation of the Liability of Owners of Ships Sea, signed in Brussels, 25 August 1924 1 .
In witness whereof, The Plenipotentiaries, duly authorised, have signed this Convention.
Done at Brussels, on 10 October 1957, in the English and French languages, both texts being equally authentic, in a single copy, which will remain deposited in the archives of the Government of Belgium which will issue certified copies.
1 [RS 7 565]
(1) Any State may, at the time of signature, ratification or accession to this Convention, formulate the reservations provided for in par. (2). No other reservation to this Convention shall be admissible.
(2) The following reservations shall be admissible only:
(Suivent signatures)
States Parties |
Ratification Accession (A) Declaration of succession (S) |
Entry into force |
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Algeria |
August 18 |
1964 A |
May 31 |
1968 |
China |
||||
Macao A |
6 December |
1999 |
20 December |
1999 |
Congo, Kinshasa |
17 July |
1967 A |
May 31 |
1968 |
Fiji * |
22 August |
1972 S |
10 October |
1970 |
Ghana * |
26 July |
1961 A |
May 31 |
1968 |
India * |
1 Er June |
1971 |
1 Er December |
1971 |
Iran * |
April 26 |
1966 A |
May 31 |
1968 |
Israel * |
30 November |
1967 |
May 31 |
1968 |
Lebanon |
December 23 |
1994 A |
23 June |
1995 |
Madagascar |
July 13 |
1965 A |
May 31 |
1968 |
Monaco * |
24 January |
1977 A |
24 July |
1977 |
Papua New Guinea * |
March 14 |
1980 A |
September 14 |
1980 |
Netherlands |
||||
Aruba |
June 16 |
1986 |
16 December |
1986 |
Poland |
1 Er December |
1972 |
1 Er June |
1973 |
Portugal * |
April 8 |
1968 |
8 October |
1968 |
Solomon Islands * |
September 17 |
1981 S |
7 July |
1978 |
Switzerland |
21 January |
1966 |
May 31 |
1968 |
Syria |
10 July |
1972 A |
10 January |
1973 |
Tonga * |
13 June |
1978 A |
13 December |
1978 |
* |
Reservations and declarations, see below. |
|||
A |
Of the Sept 23. 1999 to 19 Dec. 1999, the conv. Was applicable to Macao on the basis of a declaration of territorial extension of Portugal. From Dec 20. 1999, Macao became a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China. According to the Chinese declaration of 6 Dec. 1999, the conv. Is also applicable to the Macao SAR from 20 Dec. 1999. |
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Fiji
The Government of Fiji has ratified the Convention on the following reservations:
Ghana
The Government of Ghana reserves the right:
India
Same reservations as Ghana.
Iran
In signing the Convention, the Government of Iran reserved the right to:
Israel
Same reservations as Ghana.
Monaco
Monaco has formulated the three reservations provided for in para. 2 (a), (b) and (c) of the Protocol of Signing.
Papua New Guinea
(a) The Government of Papua New Guinea excludes the application of art. 1; para. 1 (c).
(b) The Government of Papua New Guinea will regulate under the special provisions of the national law the system of limitation of liability applicable to ships of less than 300 tons.
(c) The Government of Papua New Guinea shall give force of law to this Convention by including the provisions of this Convention in the national legislation of Papua New Guinea.
Portugal
Same reservations as Ghana.
Solomon Islands
Same reservations as those of Great Britain, namely the reservations set out in par. 2, let. A and b, signature protocol (RO 1973 701).
Tonga
The Government of Tonga reserves the right to:
1 This Convention is still applicable to Switzerland only in relations with Contracting Powers which are not party to the 1976 Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims (RS 0747.331.53 Art. 17 hp. 4). See the list of States Parties published below.
2 Art. 1 al. 1 let. A of the 1 Er Dec. 1965 (RO 1966 1001).
3 RO 1968 1388
4 RO 1973 698, 1982 508, 1984 530, 1985 605, 1986 2262, 1987 1149, 1988 1538, 1990 1732, 2005 1599, 2008 625 and 2011 3555. A version of the updated scope of application is published on the DFAE website (http://www.dfae.admin.ch/traites).