We now move on to the international legal system. Since maritime law is made
and enforced by nation states, we must briefly examine the legal frame work
which determines the rights and responsibilities of nations for their ocean going
merchant ships. There are two specific questions which arise when we start discussing
How the law affects shipping economics. First, which nation’s law applies to a
ship? Second, what are the rights of other nations over that ship as it moves about
the world? As we will see, these are very practical questions, the answers to which
can make a great deal of difference to the cost of running ships. Over the centuries
the world has evolved a set of customary rules for dealing with these questions,
known as the ‘law of the sea’.