Inaug.-diss.--Heidelberg. / Lebenslauf. "Literatur-abkürzungen": 1 p. folowing p. 109.

Includes bibliographical references. / The scope of this dissertation is an examination of the different aspects of legal encouragement for salvors in English, South African, and German salvage laws. For this purpose, attention will be given to the questions of whether the present salvage laws in England, as the "mother"-country for maritime law, in South Africa, and in Germany encourage modem salvors to undertake expensive and risky salvage operations or whether the mentioned legal systems dampen the salvor's motivation to salvage life and maritime property out of distress situations.

In this dissertation, the issue that is considered is whether or not the provisions of section 3(7)(a)(ii) read with section 3(7)(b)(i) of the Admiralty Jurisdiction Regulation Act 105 of 1983 ('the Act') constitute an arbitrary deprivation of a minority shareholder's property because they permit the deprivation of minority shareholder's property interests purely on the basis of common control by the majority shareholder.

This research is contextualised in the maritime domain, where since the introduction of legislation mandating the carriage of Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS) by merchant vessels, evidence has emerged of unintended consequences of this legislation – which threaten the safety of navigation. The real-time presentation of information displayed by ECDIS should improve deck officers’ cognitive assessment of their navigational situation, yet the terms ‘ECDIS-assisted accidents’ and ‘ECDIS-assisted groundings’ have of late become part of maritime terminology. This dissertation presents an analysis of the factors inhibiting ECDIS from effectually achieving its intended primary function of contributing to safe navigation. Applicable legislation is identified and case studies are used to scrutinise the efficacy of the current legal framework regulating the use of ECDIS. The potentially unsafe technical operational aspects and limitations of ECDIS are analysed and the human factor and human error in the use of ECDIS are critically evaluated. Current industry initiatives to improve the safety of navigation with ECDIS are outlined and additional measures to mitigate unsafe practices in the use of ECDIS by deck officers are considered. This research finds that despite an apparently robust legal framework regulating the use of ECDIS, the current legislative provisions do not appear to be effective in preventing ECDIS-assisted accidents, particularly vessel groundings. It is found that ECDIS training has not been sufficiently integrated into the STCW Code and express provisions mandating how ECDIS should be used as an aid to navigation are inadequate. Overreliance is identified as a primary risk in the use of ECDIS, as it significantly reduces navigational safety. ECDIS is an aid to navigation and must be used in conjunction with traditional watchkeeping skills and the practices of good seamanship. Given that most maritime casualties are caused by human error, measures to address the human factor should be embedded into ECDIS pedagogy. Instead of fulfilling its primary function of improving the safety of navigation, the use of ECDIS can in fact reduce situational awareness by distracting navigators from looking out of the bridge windows. This research concludes that in the case of ECDIS, the introduction of technology intended to reduce human error in shipboard operations has inadvertently created new error sources. Improved training methods are required to address these types of technologically-generated error pathways.

Ship's Masters frequently face criminalisation after a maritime accident. Even though international pollution instruments are unambiguous regarding the consequences of shipsource pollution, states often penalise the Master in a manner that is not consistent with their treaty obligations. It brings into question whether international pollution instruments' objective to impose uniformity in their application is subverted by states who impose sanctions on the Master, which defies the aim of the pollution instruments to which they are bound. The protection of the marine environment is strictly regulated in several international conventions to reduce the risk of pollution. The consequences of ship-source pollution are sufficiently clear-cut to ensure compliance by the shipping industry and provide states responsible for enforcing it with clarity. The reality is that states often impose harsh punitive measures on the Master when an accident leads to pollution, and he is often disproportionately criminalised despite the conventions' safeguards. During the last decade, the IMO and maritime industry partners have attempted to address criminalisation by appealing to states to treat seafarers fairly after a maritime accident. However, the facts indicate that states often circumvent the conventions to suit their prevailing circumstances. Although the criminalisation of the Master is an innately worrying factor for anyone who operates a ship or aspires to a career at sea, it is the persistent unwillingness of states to comply with their treaty obligations that poses the biggest threat to the industry. Why states may be motivated to circumvent the conventions are investigated and measured against the ramifications when states do not comply with their treaty obligations to establish whether states are deliberately subverting the aim of international pollution instruments to achieve uniformity. Indications are that the criminalization of the Master through defying the international pollution instruments has become the norm, and states are more driven by regional ethics than their treaty obligations. States tend to favour a punitive approach to pollution strongly and are highly likely to act in a manner inconsistent with their treaty obligations when ship-source pollution occurs in their waters.

Includes bibliographical references. / This dissertation aims to engage in an historical and multi-jurisdictional study of forum selection clauses in the context of international maritime carriage contracts by: 1. Describing the historical situation which led to the inclusion of jurisdiction clauses in maritime contracts in the first place, providing background information on their regulation, construction and validity under the law, and touching upon other important preliminary considerations ( Chapter 2 ); 2. Providing a multi-jurisdictional analysis of the national regulation and enforcement of jurisdiction clauses contained in carriage agreements ( Chapter 3 ); 3. Providing an overview of the European regulation and enforcement of jurisdiction clauses contained in carriage agreements ( Chapter 4 ) ; 4. Providing an overview of the regulation and enforcement of jurisdiction clauses under the Hamburg and Rotterdam Rules ( Chapter 5 ); and 5. Offering suggestions for achieving greater harmonization of rules on jurisdiction clauses and concluding remarks ( Chapter 6 ).

The dissertation discusses unmanned shipping from a South African perspective. While some nations are trailblazers in this field, other states lack behind and do not yet provide with a clear strategy for the future. Hence, the threat is real that they might be too late and will lose out in the competition to attract ship building, technology development, job creation and a whole new branch of industry. As a shipping nation in a strategically high important geographic area, South Africa's perspective is highlighted and it is examined whether the time has already come to open the ship register for unmanned vessels. Therefore, after a summary regarding the state of affairs, it is evaluated what the most severe dangers of unmanned shipping are from the perspective of compliance with safety regulations. Subsequently, a cost-benefit-analysis follows that seeks to anticipate the decision of the registrar burdened with the question of whether to allow an unmanned vessel of a certain level of autonomy on the South African register. Although it is found that the benefits in prospect are tremendous, it is also concluded that at this point in time great dangers and uncertainties are to expect and that possible solutions to those are still in their infancy. Thus, it is to conclude that the question whether South Africa should open its register for unmanned vessels must be yes ultimately, but not now.

While the identification of the carrier under a contract for the carriage of goods by sea, whether as unimodal transport or as a leg of a multimodal transport, for the purposes of determining the person liable for the loss or the damage to goods carried, does not generally present a cargo interest with difficulties, there are instances in which it may do so. This minor dissertation evaluates the solutions provided by the Rotterdam Rules to certain 'identity of the carrier problems'.

Includes bibliographical references. / The question this dissertation aims to answer is how developing countries can be better included in the IMOs decision-making process in order to make the process more efficient regarding time efficiency and the enforcement of decisions. It will be shown that the decision-making process of the IMO lacks efficiency regarding time-efficiency, which leads to a delay in finalising, adopting and implementing IMO decisions. Furthermore, the implementation and enforcement of decisions is inefficient. It will be demonstrated that the IMO would work more efficiently if developing countries would be better included in the decision making process. In order to point out ways to increase the IMOs efficiency and to improve the participation of developing countries in the process, seven suggestions on how to improve the efficiency of the IMO will be analysed. However, it will be shown that only a few of them have the double effect of improving the effectiveness of IMO´s decision-making process and strengthening the participation of developing countries. Out of the seven proposals for strengthening the efficiency of the IMOs decision-making process that are to be examined in this work only a change to the structure of the IMO to open up the “rich man´s club” and the expansion of the IMOs efforts to strengthen the member states implementation willingness achieve both objectives at the same time. However, there is not just one way to improve the IMOs decision-making process and the participation of developing countries in it. For achieving the best results, a few of the proposals should be combined.

Includes bibliographical references.