Legal News

BIMCO and Hunit have launched a joint pilot project with the aim to reduce risks, cut manual workloads, and modernize the way the maritime industry works with standard contracts.The pilot project will address challenges such as rising operational demands driven by sanctions regimes, increasing safety and emissions requirements, insurer expectations for transparency, and more frequent inspections, to name a few.Today, much of this work to is still managed through PDFs, inboxes…

War insurance costs for ships sailing to the Black Sea have spiked again, with insurers reviewing policies daily as the conflict in Ukraine spills into sea lanes, five shipping and insurance sources said on Thursday.The Black Sea is crucial for the shipment of grain, oil and oil products. Its waters are shared by Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania and Turkey, as well as Russia and Ukraine.Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Wednesday that attacks on Russia-linked tankers in…

Seatrium has issued a notice of arbitration against an affiliate of Maersk Offshore Wind, escalating a dispute over the termination of a contract for a wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV) intended for the Empire Wind 1 project in the United States.The move follows a notice of arbitration delivered by the buyer on October 21, one day after Seatrium notified the buyer that the vessel would be ready for delivery by January 30, 2026. The dispute will be heard in London under the…

Brazilian federal prosecutors in Para state have filed a lawsuit to demand the removal of the hull and oily residues from the Haidar ship, which sank 10 years ago near Vila do Conde port, Brazil's biggest for live cattle shipments.In a statement on Wednesday, Para federal prosecutors recalled the Haidar wreck caused the death of 5,000 cattle and a spill of 700,000 liters of oily residues.A subsequent spill from the Haidar wreck was reported in 2018, prosecutors said, showing that remaining residues inside the hull represent "a constant threat."Some 215,000 liters of oil, diesel, fuel, and lubr

The livestock carrier Spiridon II has unloaded cattle in the Libyan city of Benghazi after being stranded off the Turkish coast for more than a month after a month-long voyage from Uruguay with nearly 3,000 cattle on board.The Spiridon II is now back at sea.It is unclear what happened to the dead animals and sewage onboard. Dozens of animals had already died, and many calves had been born, lost, or perished. The dead animals and excrement cannot legally be disposed of in the Mediterranean Sea due to MARPOL regulations.

Marketing in Maritime (MiM), the specialist networking and development community for marketing and communications professionals in the marine and energy sectors, appointed Kae-Ley Brann to a new role of Business Manager.Brann joins at a pivotal time in the Marketing in Maritime journey, as it prepares to embark on an ambitious new chapter as a community-led professional development platform. As Business Manager, she will steer the evolution of Marketing in Maritime’s new ‘MiMbership’ program…

Four men, including the chief officer of an international livestock carrier, have been charged over their alleged roles in an organised crime plot to import more than 525kg of cocaine into Australia, after packages of the drug were found floating in the ocean off Western Australia.A Western Australia Joint Organised Crime Taskforce investigation into suspicious activity by an international vessel was already under way when members of the public alerted police on November 6 after finding large packages tied to flotation drums about 30km offshore.Later that day…

Australian Border Force (ABF) officers posted overseas in Beijing have prevented over 600,000 illegal vapes from hitting Australia’s streets after information sharing led to the referral of almost 70 high risk containers.The majority of the seized vapes - which had a street value of approximately $30 million, arrived into NSW between September and October 2025.The information allowed ABF officers to identify several other shipments related to the initial referrals, with majority of the containers falsely described as items such as glass bottles…

South Africa’s National Council of SPCAs (NSPCA) has welcomed a judgment delivered by the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court in Makhanda which strengthens its authority to prevent cruelty to animals during the export of live animals by sea.The ruling overturns severe restrictions previously imposed by the East London Magistrates’ Court during the planned loading of more than 53,000 animals onto the live export vessel Al Messilah in July 2023.The Magistrate had, amongst other things…

A Tanzanian national has appeared in the Port Adelaide Magistrate's Court in Australia charged with the alleged importation of 3kg of methamphetamine into Australia.An investigation started on November 8 after a security officer contracted by Flinders Ports at Port Adelaide stopped the cargo ship crew member, 50, for a random baggage inspection as he left for shore leave.Three suspicious packages containing a crystal-like substance were found in a backpack the man was carrying.

A Greek prosecutor has extended charges to four more senior coast guard officers over one of the Mediterranean's deadliest accidents, a 2023 shipwreck in which hundreds drowned off the southwestern town of Pylos, legal sources said on Thursday.The charges follow an appeal by lawyers representing the victims, the sources told Reuters.The shipwreck of the overloaded migrant boat Adriana in international waters on June 14, 2023, sent shockwaves across Europe. A Greek naval court…

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has adopted Guidelines for Fair Labour Market Services for Migrant Fishers at a meeting convened in Geneva from October 27 to 31.Guidance on recruitment processes, work agreements, complaint procedures, and enforcement measures is included to safeguard the rights of migrant fishers globally while also supporting employers in recruiting and retaining a skilled workforce.The guidance comes as the fishing industry continues to face human rights violations and inadequate regulatory oversight.

The CEO of Austrian energy firm OMV on Tuesday urged the European Union to reconsider its sustainability legislation or risk losing Qatar as a gas supplier which would undermine prosperity in the region.Qatar's Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi, who is also CEO of QatarEnergy said on Monday that he could halt business with the EU if it does not significantly ease its Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive.Kaabi told Reuters at the ADIPEC energy conference in Abu Dhabi that Qatar has contingency plans in place should it decide to stop shipments to Europe in response to the directive - a t

The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) led a large-scale joint customs operation, NOXIA II, successfully targeting shipments suspected of containing illicit cigarettes, waste, drug precursors, and pesticides.The operation led to the coordinated seizure by the participating customs authorities of 149.5 million cigarettes, over 3,000 tonnes of illicit waste, 66.5 kg of pseudoephedrine, 52 tonnes of solid pesticides, and 21,000 liters of liquid pesticides.NOXIA II revealed the use of sophisticated global routes to smuggle cigarettes into the Asia-Pacific region and Europe.

A sanctioned liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker made a ship-to-ship (STS) transfer off the coast of Malaysia after picking up a cargo from a Russian export terminal also under Western restrictions, according to two analytics firms.The operation appears to be the first known STS transfer of sanctioned Russian LNG, despite Western efforts to curb Moscow's energy revenues over its war in Ukraine.The LNG tanker Perle, which was sanctioned by the United States in January, had been…

On the afternoon of March 8, a petroleum tanker named Torm Agnes entered the Port of Ensenada on Mexico’s Pacific coast carrying almost 120,000 barrels of diesel.Such a vessel was a rare sight in that port, which mainly hosts cruise liners, luxury yachts and container ships. Ensenada lacks the infrastructure needed to unload cargos of flammable hydrocarbons safely – making what happened later that day odder still.Waves of fuel-hauling trucks rolled up to the dock to cart away much of the Torm Agnes’ load.

Italy's antitrust regulator said on Friday that Shipping Agencies Services (SAS), a unit of maritime group MSC, would drop its acquisition of a 49% stake in ferry operator Moby after the watchdog opened a probe into alleged restriction of competition.Moby, majority-owned by Onorato Armatori group, runs ferries linking Italy's mainland to tourist islands such as Sardinia and Corsica.The Italian authority, which opened an investigation into the acquisition last year, said the deal could have weakened competition on routes where Moby and ferry company Grandi Navi Veloci (GNV), controlled by SAS,

The Pakistan navy said on Wednesday it seized narcotics worth about $972 million in the North Arabian Sea in an operation with a Saudi-led task force.The navy's YARMOOK ship, operating under the Saudi-led Combined Task Force of the Combined Maritime Forces, carried out the operation, the navy said in a statement.(Reuters - Reporting by Asif Shahzad)

The U.S. military killed five alleged drug smugglers in strikes against two vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday, in an expansion of the Trump administration's use of the armed forces in its counter-narcotics campaign.On Wednesday afternoon, Hegseth said the military attacked a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean and killed two men on Tuesday. It was the first known U.S. military operation in the Pacific since President Donald Trump kicked off a new offensive against the drug trade.Hours later…

Three men who sank a drug-filled luxury sports cruiser in the waters off Western Australia in 2023 have been sentenced to a combined 29 years and six months' imprisonment for their roles in a botched plot to import more than 300kg of cocaine into the state.The men, aged 38, 47 and 51, each pleaded guilty to one count of importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug, contrary to section 307.1 of the Criminal Code (Cth). The 38-year-old was sentenced to nine years and three months' imprisonment with a non-parole period of six years.

A newly released study by Seafarers' Rights International (SRI) finds that cabotage laws now exist on 85% of the world’s coastlines, are growing in number at an unprecedented pace, and are increasingly essential to national security, economic stability and maritime resilience.The Cabotage Laws of the World (2025) report, commissioned by the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), compares nations in their enforcement of cabotage laws, which restrict the waterborne transportation of goods or passengers between two points within the same country to domestic carriers.

Singapore’s Seatrium has received a notice of arbitration from Maersk Offshore Wind’s affiliate, regarding the dispute over the termination of a $475 million contract for a nearly completed wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV) originally intended for Equinor’s Empire Wind 1 project in the United States.The arbitration notice, received on October 21, comes just one day after Seatrium Energy (International) (SEI), a subsidiary of Seatrium, informed the buyer that the vessel would be ready for delivery by January 30…

Growing environmental pressures are reviving interest in nuclear propulsion as a potential long-term route to decarbonize shipping, DNV said in a new paper, despite there being no civilian nuclear-powered vessels built for more than four decades.DNV’s latest report, Maritime nuclear propulsion: Technologies, commercial viability, and regulatory challenges for nuclear-powered vessels, highlights how maritime nuclear technologies differ from land-based reactors, and emphasizes the need to address technological…