Updating the Arrest Convention

In many ways, the 40-year-old international convention on vessel arrest is no longer compatible with today’s global shipping industry, and efforts to update the convention – its rules being the usual means of enforcing maritime liens and mortgages – are important to both shipowners and lenders.

In December, an Intergovernmental Group from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) met in Geneva to begin the task of updating the 1952 International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to the Arrest of Sea-going Ships. The arrest convention’s primary objective was to promote the interests of owners of ships and of cargo by securing free movement of vessels and by promoting arrests for claims not related to the operation of ship. However, under most national legal systems, arrests continue to be permitted for any claim regardless of its nature.

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