선박의 등화와 형상물 표시의무와 누락 및 착오 발생시 항법적용과 책임

Lights and shapes stipulated by 「the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, here-under, the COLREG)」 and 「the Korean Maritime Traffic Safety Act(here-under, the KMTSA)」 not only serve as auxiliary means for the implementation of navigation rules for vessels encountering each other at sea, but also play a role as a means of indicating to the other vessels the encounter posture and the current situation of the related vessels. Therefore, the regulations concerning lights and shapes stipulated by the COLREG and the KMTSA are mandatory provisions that must be strictly adhered to by prudent mariners to maintain maritime order and prevent collisions. If a collision occurs because mariners fail to comply with the obligation to display lights or shapes as stipulated by the COLREG and the KMTSA, it can be generally considered that the mariners have breached their duty of care. However, since a causal relationship must be recognized between the ship collision and the mariners failure to display lights and shapes, if the failure to display lights and shapes did not contribute to the collision, the mariners cannot be held responsible for the occurrence of the collision. Furthermore, the lights and shapes stipulated by the COLREG serve as symbols indicating the navigational status, and related works of the vessel to other ships. Therefore, in principle, legal responsibility can be imposed not only for intentionally displaying lights or shapes that indicate a different navigational status from the vessel’s actual status, but also for mistakenly displaying lights or shapes that do not correspond to the vessel’s navigational status. In such cases, it should be considered that, in principle, other vessels that navigated in reliance on the displayed lights or shapes of a particular vessel do not bear legal responsibility. Even in such cases, if the other vessel was aware that the displayed lights of the opposing vessel did not correspond to its actual navigational status, it should be considered that the vessel cannot be exempt from liability.