Publications

Law 14/2014, of July 24, 2014, on Maritime Shipping (Ley de Navegación Marítima or “LNM” or the Maritime Shipping Law) was published in the Official Gazette on July 25, 2014. Besides updating, modernizing and codifying a large part of Maritime Law, it contains exhaustive provisions on the rules and legal relationships arising in connection with maritime shipping to resolve the existing contradictions between the international treaties in force in Spain and Spanish law, and attempts to bring an end to the dual legal regimes previously applicable to national and international cases for some specific matters (carriage by sea, collisions, salvage, etc.).

The LNM expressly repeals, among other provisions, Book III and other articles of the Spanish Commercial Code in force, the 1893 Ship Mortgage Act (LHN), the 1949 Law on the Carriage of Goods by Sea under a Bill of Lading (LTM) and Law 60/1962 on assistance, salvage, towage, objects found and removed at sea (LAS), (except for the provisions in Title II, which will continue in force as regulations).

The new Law will come into force on September 25, 2014, two months after its publication in the Official Gazette. The aim of this special issue of our Newsletter is to report on some features of the new legislation introduced by the LNM, such as:

1. Proprietor, shipowner and shipping company

2. The master

3. Ship management agreement

4. The ship agent

5. The pilotage agreement

6. Classification societies

7. Carriage by sea

8. Collisions

9. Maritime salvage

10. Shipping insurance

11. Procedural provisions: jurisdiction, arrest of vessels, compulsory sale and procedure for limiting liability for maritime claims

12. New statute of limitations periods for bringing action

13. Noncontentious procedures

14. Shipping Conferences

15. New yacht and pleasure craft legislation