A Study on International Legal Regime and IMO Initiatives concerning the Liability of Classification Societies

There is no uniform regulation governing tort claims against classification societies at an international level and individual nation’s solutions cannot bring the uniformity needed for this important issue. Their liability is a matter which may ultimately require an internationally agreed regulation in order to ensure legal certainty and uniform applicability. Either amending existing international convention, through the revision of the 1976 International Convention on the Limitation of Liability of Maritime Claims (LLMC) or creating a whole new international convention which is dedicated to the liability issues that solely relates to classification societies, could be considered as an answer to the question of class liability. However, considering all circumstances, these options are not realistic to handle the liability issue of classification societies in a timely fashion. This conclusion has led to a different approach which is to find an alternative IMO instrument to serve the purpose of accommodating the liability of classification societies. Recently, IMO Sub-committee on Flag State Implementation (FSI) has been working on the development of the draft Code for Recognized Organizations (RO Code) which consolidates various existing IMO instruments that address ROs and their work on behalf of flag states. The aim of RO code is to assist flag states in meeting their responsibilities in recognizing, authorizing and monitoring their ROs by gathering all the applicable RO requirements in a single IMO mandatory instrument. It is right time to incorporate a text for limitation of liability of Recognized Organizations (ROs) into the RO Code, and it is also a right instrument to introduce a principle of limitation of liability of ROs. Considering that the majority of ROs are classification societies, in case where the principle for ROs can be uniformly implemented, it may be possible to establish the limitation of liability of classification societies. If a number of flag states adopt a system of quantitative limitation of the liability of classification societies based on the suggested IMO mandatory requirement in their legislation, there would be an improved level of legal certainty for classification societies in carrying out their survey and certification works.