Ineffectiveness of International Law on the ‘Genuine Link’: Shedding New Light on Bareboat Charter Registration

Enforcement of jurisdiction over a ship by a State depends on the ship’s nationality or its flag. UN convention on the High Seas and UN Convention on the Law of the Sea imposes the freedom of granting the ship’s nationality on each State while the existence of ‘genuine link’ between the ship and the state of registry is required. However, it is virtually ineffective because of the vagueness of the meaning of the ‘genuine link’ per se and the ambiguity of the consequence of the absence of ‘genuine link’. In particular, such international law may not be able to provide the solution to the problem of the flag of convenience. Bareboat Charter Registry scheme may include both flag-in and flag-out aspects. Most of bareboat charter registrations were used by the ship-owners who sought after the benefit of the open registry. However, the bareboat registration of the chartered-in vessel which is already registered in an open registry State can provide a basis of the control or jurisdiction by the flagged-in State. In this article, the bareboat charter registration’s origin, development and the legal effect are discussed and new light is shed on the bareboat charter registration with regard to the legal feasibility of controlling the flag of convenience.