Decision ID: 001233

In June 2001 the 1992 Fund Executive Committee and the 1971 Fund Administrative Council noted that at the time of the Zeinab incident the United Arab Emirates was a Party to both the 1971 and 1992 Fund Conventions, having not denounced the former when acceding to the latter. The Committee and the Council recalled that they had considered the applicability of the two Conventions at their 8th and 2nd sessions respectively in the context of the Al Jaziah 1 incident and that the two bodies had decided that both the 1992 Fund Convention and the 1971 Fund Convention applied to that incident. The Executive Committee and the Administrative Council decided that since the United Arab Emirates was at the time of the Zeinab incident a Party to both the 1969/1971 Conventions and the 1992 Conventions, both sets of Conventions applied to the incident. It was noted that since the Zeinab was reportedly registered in Georgia, which was a party to the 1969 Civil Liability Convention but not to the 1992 Civil Liability Convention, the United Arab Emirates would be under a treaty obligation to apply the 1969 Civil Liability Convention in respect of the shipowner’s liability (cf. Article 30.4(b) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties).

Date: 31.05.2001
Categories: Application of the Conventions, Financial limits, limitation proceedings and indemnification
Subjects: Treaty/constitutional issues, Shipowner's right of limitation of liability