16 Law of Harbours and Pilotage »
Osvaldo Agripino de Castro, Cesar Luiz Pasold
From: The IMLI Manual on International Maritime Law: Volume II: Shipping Law
Edited By: David Joseph Attard, Malgosia Fitzmaurice, Ignacio Arroyo, Norman Martinez, Elda Belja
This chapter covers navigation safety in and around harbours and ports by presenting the main legal aspects involved in port activities. It emphasizes civil liability, adopting a comparative law approach and taking as examples two countries which follow the common law system—the UK and the United States—and two countries under the civil law system—Spain and Brazil. Regardless of the law system used, the rule of law on harbours and pilotage is a critical topic, particularly in view of the amount of capital invested in maritime transportation and the large volume of legislation and officials regulating this important economic sector. A comparative analysis between the two system reveals a wide discrepancy; while in civil law countries, the harbour master has control of navigation and the pilot is considered merely as an advisor, in common law countries the master delegates the conduct of the vessel to the pilot.
