We are happy to share the Italian chapter on Ship Finance 2018 edited by the international guide Getting the Deal Through. Our Andrea Berlingieri and Lorenzo Pellerano have contributed to the chapter addressing the main issues of the legislation in Italy and applicable to the registration and financing of the ship. The chapter is available at the following link
Ship Arrest and Insolvency in the UK and in Italy
London 5th October 2018 – Young branch of the Italian Maritime Law Association and LSLC-YMP (The London Shipping Law Centre – Young Maritime Professional) event on Ship Arrest and Insolvency in the UK and Italy.
A panel of shipping professionals from Italy and England and Wales will discuss, compare and contrast Ship Arrest and Insolvency matters between the two jurisdictions. Our Giorgio Berlingieri will welcome the participants and our Lorenzo Fabro will be among the speakers at the Session 11.
The full program is available at the following link London 5th Ocotber 2018 YMP Event
The issue of compliance in Italian Ports – Berlingieri Maresca at the 7th International Research Seminar in Maritime, Port and Transport Law
Our Lorenzo Pellerano took part to the 7th International Research Seminar in Maritime, Port and Transport Law hosted in Venice by the North Adriatic Sea Port Authority.
The title of Lorenzo’s presentation was “The issue of compliance in Italian Ports: Safety, Data Protection, Legislative Decree 231/01”; he dealt with the main contents of three legal instruments introducing compliance requirements applicable to Italian port operators.
As far the issue of safety is concerned, a focus was dedicated to the lack of co-ordination between the legal framework concerning safety in Italian port areas (Legislative Decree 272/1999) and the general provisions ruling the safety at work in Italy (Legislative Decree 81/2008).
The second part furnished a brief introduction to Legislative Decree 8 June 2001, n. 231. Such a legal instrument introduced in Italy the administrative liability of legal entities related to the commission of a special list of crimes (among others – as ports may be involved – the non-voluntary murder or personal injury caused with violation of the safety regulations, but also the sea pollution caused by ships).
Under Legislative Decree 231/2001, if a crime is committed by a director or an employee of a company in the legal entity’s interest, the legal entity is exposed to a number of sanctions (fines, interdiction of the activity, waive of public authorizations, concessions and licenses, prohibition to make advertisement, etc.).
Finally, the contribution commented the possible impact of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 – also known as General Data Protection Regulation – on port operators. From 25 May 2018 on, the GDPR became applicable and many shipping operators are required to achieve soon compliance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 requirements, because every day shipowners, charterers, port agents, terminals and Port Authorities based in the European Union process a huge number of personal data of passengers, clients, suppliers, employees. While processing the relevant personal data the Controllers and the Data Processors have now to respect the GDPR principles; otherwise they will be exposed to onerous administrative fines and liabilities.
2nd Cross Border Corporate Insolvency and Commercial Law Conference
London – The 2nd Cross Border Corporate Insolvency and Commercial Law Conference (CI&CL Conference) took place on 27 April 2018 at the City University of London. Our Lorenzo Fabro was among the speakers with a speech on “Cross-Border Insolvency and Charter Parties: a recent decision of the EU Court of Justice”.
Lorenzo Fabro analyzed and commented the decision issued by the EUCJ on 08 June 2017 in the case C-54/2016 between Vinlys Italia Spa in bankruptcy v. Mediterranea di Navigazione Spa in response to a request for preliminary ruling made by the Venice Court about the interpretation of Article 13 of Regulation 1346/2000 on insolvency proceedings (now substituted by the recast Regulation 848/2015) and its relationship with the application of the Regulation “Rome I”, in particular in a case where both parties are registered in the same Member State and chose the law of a different Member State as governing law of a C/P. The request for preliminary ruling was made within the action brought by the charterers pursuant to art. 67 of Italian Bankruptcy Law to set certain transactions aside and for the repayment by the owners of 2 rates of hire paid by charterers to owners in the six months preceding the declaration of insolvency. On the contrary, owners objected that the payments were made under a contract governed by English law and that therefore, according to said law, which they claimed was conclusive pursuant to Art. 13 of Reg. 1346/2000, the contested payments could not be challenged.
The decision was particularly relevant, both from the cross border insolvency and the private international law points of view, since the EU Court of Justice in particular stated that the provisions of art. 13 of Reg. 1346/2000 may be validly relied upon (and therefore the provisions of the lex fori concursus about setting aside payments do not apply) also where the parties to a contract, who have their head offices in a single Member State on whose territory all the other elements relevant to the situation in question are located, have designated the law of another Member State as the law applicable to that contract, provided that those parties did not choose that law for abusive or fraudulent ends. Thus protecting the legitimate expectations of shipowners stipulating charterparties and allowing them to rely on the provisions of a law of a different Member State agreed by the parties in case a claw-back action is commenced by the insolvent charterers and according to said law there is no basis for the administrators or receivers to recover some payments. This irrespective of the eventual knowledge by owners about the financial situation of charterers.
The entire program of the conference is available at the following link
Shiprecycling – Regulation 1257/2013
Recently the Dutch Public Prosecutor brought criminal charges against a Dutch shipowner for having sold a vessel to a “cash buyer” for further scrapping in a yard where current ship dismantling methods endanger the lives and health of workers and pollute the enviroment. The Dutch shipowner was fined by the Rotterdam Court but the decision, as far as we know, is questioned and the Dutch Shipowner is now considering the appeal.
The proceeding brought in the Netherlands open the question whether Europe Union is ready for the entrance in force of the Regulation 1257/2013 which is provided for the 31st December of 2018. In fact on 19 December 2016 the European Commission adopted the first version of the European List of ship recycling facilities, but the list of non European approved shipyard has not been published yet. The risk is that the capacity of the the European approved shipyard will not be sufficient to receive all the vessels to be scrapped in the next years by the European shipowners and consequently it is a concrete risk that the costs to recycle the vessels in compliance with the EU Regulation increase considerably.
It is our opinion that the European Commission shall consequently draw its attention to this problem and proceed without delay to the inspection of the non European shipyard in order to adopt the implementing acts according to the procedure of article 15 of Regulation 1257/2013.
As far as Italian law is concerned, with Decree 12 October 2017, the Minister of Instrastructure and Transport adopted the measures to authorize the recycling of the vessels. According article 5 of the said Decree a shipowner who intends to recycle a vessel shall declare its intention to the office where the vessel is registered. The office shall therefore transmit the information to the chief of the maritime compartment for the approval of the ship recycling plan and to the maritime authority where the facility is located. Such information shall include those of article 7 of Regulation 1257/2013, i.e. (i) the date on which the ship was registered within the State whose flag it flies; (ii) the ship’s identification number (IMO number); (iii) the hull number on new-building delivery; (iv) the name and type of the ship; (v) the port at which the ship is registered; (vi) the name and address of the ship owner as well as the IMO registered owner identification number; (vii) the name and address of the company; (viii) the name of any classification societies with which the ship is classed; (ix) the ship’s main particulars (Length overall (LOA), Breadth (Moulded), Depth (Moulded), LDT, Gross and Net tonnage, and engine type and rating).
European Law 2017 – News in the Italian Law applying to shipowners
On 8 November the Italian Parliament (Camera dei Deputati) definitively approved without amendments the “European Law 2017” (being the internal law introducing European directives and principles in Italian jurisdiction); some of its provisions will surely be of interest for the shipping community.
Art. 10 expands the scope of application of the favorable tax regime of the “tonnage tax”, so that it will be applicable to Italian or European shipowners (provided they have a permanent establishment in Italy) with vessels registered in any of the European Registries, eliminating the limit of the registration of the vessel within the Italian International Ships’ Register. The following favorable tax regimes are extended: tax credit in an amount equal to the taxes on physical persons income due on the wages that are paid by the company to the embarked personnel, optional flat-rate regime known as tonnage tax.
Art. 14 clarifies that the validity of a Seafarers’ Medical Certificate – if expiring during a voyage – can be prorogated up to three months after its expiry. The new provision makes it clear that the medical certification remains in force up to the arrival in a port where a doctor is available, provided such a period does not exceed three months.
Berlingieri Maresca at the Genoa 2017 CMI Assembly
Berlingieri Maresca is official supporter of the events as listed in www.cmi2017genoa.org , which include a CMI/AIDIM Seminar and the 2017 CMI Assembly and will take place in Genoa the 7 and 8 September 2017.
Giorgio Berlingieri, as Vice President of CMI and President of Italian Maritime Law Association (AIDIM), will welcome delegates coming to Genoa from all over the world and will join the CMI Executive Council/International Working Group/Standing Committee meetings.
Among the events there will be also a Young CMI/AIDIM Seminar, with our Lorenzo Fabro moderating the panel discussion “The Ballast Water Management Convention – its implications for the shipping industry”.
Berlingieri Maresca at the sixth edition of the “International research seminar in maritime, port and transport law”
From 21 to 24 June 2017 our Lorenzo Fabro will attend to the Sixth Edition of the “International Research Seminar in Maritime, Port and Transport Law”, organized by Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna in colaboration with Swansea University , University of Zagreb, Marmara University, University of Southampton and the Italian Association of Law Firms (ASLA).
Lorenzo ‘s speach will deal with the following topic:”The Delivery of Goods in the Model Contracts for International Sale: a Look into the Practice of the Hides and Skins Market”. [read the program]
Berlingieri Maresca at the conference organized by Middlesex University London and by China-Europe Commercial Collaboration Association: Issues of Maritime Governance: Annual Conference 2017 – London, 9 June 2017.
Our Lorenzo Pellerano will deliver a speech on “The Evolution of Port Governance in Italy” while our Lorenzo Fabro will deliver a speech on the “Breaking of Limitation of Owner’s Liability From a EU Perspective”. The interdisciplinary conference brings together expert speakers from the China-Europe Commercial Collaboration Association, City, University of London, Middlesex University, Southampton Solent University, World Maritime University, and the Chinese Shipping Association of London to discuss several major legal, economic and political issues of maritime governance in evidence around the world today: from the One Belt One Road Chinese initiative to an insight from contemporary shipping practice. [Programme]
Berlingieri Maresca at the II Adriatic Maritime Law Conference Opatija, 25-27 May 2017
Our Lorenzo Fabro and Filippo Cassola will be among the speakers at the II Adriatic Maritime Law Conference which will take place in Opatija, Croatia, the next 25th – 27th May 2017. Lorenzo Fabro and Filippo Cassola will participate at the “Pleasure craft and other vessels used for nautical tourism” session with a speech about the speak about the Italian perspective on the Italian contract of construction of pleasure crafts.
[Programme]
