Abstract
This chapter discusses the regulation of the education and training of seafarers in an international context under public international law. A brief look is taken at the history of seafarer education and training followed by a substantive treatment of the approaches and regulatory efforts of States in this respect. The shortcomings of a wholly national approach are discussed and the rationale for an international law approach presented. While the international approach has had many benefits in an increasingly globalised world, it has not been without challenges. The evolution of the international legal framework, particularly that of the STCW Convention 1978, as amended, is presented together with some related challenges in international law. The issue of sovereignty as a primary challenge to international law, and how this sovereignty may be perceived as being increasingly eroded is discussed. Finally, new/future challenges and how they could impact seafarer education and training and international law, are discussed.
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- 1.
Strasser et al. (2010), p. 145.
- 2.
Paine (2014), p. 18.
- 3.
Buchet and Balard (2017).
- 4.
Buchet et al. (2017).
- 5.
Ibid.
- 6.
Paine (2014).
- 7.
Braudel (1992).
- 8.
Larrieu (2010).
- 9.
Ibid.
- 10.
Isambert and Taillandier (1829).
- 11.
Larrieu (2010).
- 12.
The existence and exact nature of Henry the Navigator’s “school of navigation” is disputed by academics (see Randles (1993)). What is not contested is the fact that during this era in Portuguese maritime history, concerted state efforts were made to advance a national system of maritime education, training and certification.
- 13.
A relatively detailed description of the developments in the UK context is given in Kennerley (2002).
- 14.
Woodman (2009).
- 15.
Hugo Grotius’ ideas and contribution to international law were well established through his works “Mare Liberum” and “De Jure Belli ac Pacis”. They formed the beginnings of the modern legal regime of the High Seas.
- 16.
Cockroft and Lameijer (2012).
- 17.
Plant (1996).
- 18.
Ibid.
- 19.
The ILO, established in 1919 as a result of the Peace Treaty of Versailles ending World War I, predates the United Nations system as it exists today and was formed to “reflect the belief that universal and lasting peace can be accomplished only if it is based on social justice” (https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/history/lang%2D%2Den/index.htm). In 1946, after the demise for League of Nations, the ILO became the first specialised agency of a new United Nations system.
- 20.
Article 3 of ILO C53 on Officers’ Competency Certificates.
- 21.
In Article 4 of the Convention.
- 22.
The term itself is not universally deemed to be appropriate, being used only by a segment of the industry, as it is considered by some to be pejorative. Indeed, it is not in use as a legal term under UNCLOS (see Wiswall (1996)). It is not used in official text of the IMO.
- 23.
The problem of “flags of convenience” revolves round the legal concept of “genuine link” and its determination/definition and implementation. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), in its article 91 states that “Ships have the nationality of the State whose flag they are entitled to fly. There must be a genuine link between the State and the ship”. Furthermore, article 94 requires that “Every State shall effectively exercise its jurisdiction and control in administrative, technical and social matters over ships flying its flag”. Additionally, every State is required by that article to “take such measures for ships flying its flag as are necessary to ensure safety of life at sea”. In the specific context of this chapter, such measures include the manning and training of crews.
- 24.
Metaxas (1981).
- 25.
Argiroffo (1974).
- 26.
Wiswall (1996).
- 27.
Sampson (2004).
- 28.
Ibid.
- 29.
Luo et al. (2013).
- 30.
Wiswall (1996).
- 31.
- 32.
The International Maritime Organization was set up by Convention in 1948, originally as the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization. The Convention came into force in 1958 and the name changed in 1982. As a specialized agency of the United Nations, the Organization’s mandate is covered in the Convention that set it up (The Convention on the International Maritime Organization).
- 33.
A detailed description of the history of the STCW Convention (up to 1995) can be found at http://www.imo.org/en/OurWork/Safety/Regulations/Documents/STCW97.pdf.
- 34.
Crew adequacy, in terms of numbers, is covered by Regulation 14 of Chapter V of the International Convention on the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) as amended.
- 35.
“Administration” here referring to the national jurisdiction in charge of the operationalizing of the convention requirements in a national setting upon ratification.
- 36.
Morrison (1997).
- 37.
Under Regulations I/7 and I/8 of the convention. Evidence of a positive independent evaluation submitted by a Party would put that Party on a list disseminated by circular from the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) of the IMO. Revisions of MSC.1/Circ.1164 gives “information related to reports of independent evaluation submitted by Parties to the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW), 1978, as amended, confirmed by the Maritime Safety Committee to have communicated information which demonstrates that Parties are giving full and complete effect to the relevant provisions of the Convention”—the so-called “White List”.
An example of this circular (revision 18) can be found at http://www.imo.org/en/OurWork/HumanElement/Documents/MSC.1-CIRC.1164-REV.18.pdf.
- 38.
In 2006, the IMO Standards of Training and Watchkeeping (STW) Subcommittee of the MSC stated that “A comprehensive review of the STCW Convention and STCW Code is needed, in order to ensure that the Convention meets the new challenges facing the shipping industry, including but not limited to, rapid technological advances today and in years to come”.
- 39.
The other three are: from the IMO, the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships 1973, as modified by the 1978 and 1997 Protocols (MARPOL), The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974 and its Protocol of 1988; and from the ILO, The Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, all as amended.
- 40.
Codes, in general, like resolutions, have the status in law of recommendatory instruments (soft law) often treated as guidance without the mandatory force of law. However, in many cases the contents of codes become mandatory when referred to in the text of mandatory instruments such as Conventions (hard law) and compliance with their contents required by these “hard law” instruments.
- 41.
i.e. the IMO.
- 42.
Ratification, per se, has not, relatively speaking, been a problem for the IMO. SOLAS has been ratified by 164 countries (99.18% of world tonnage), MARPOL has 157 ratification (99.15% of world tonnage) and STCW has 164 Contracting Governments (99.18% of world tonnage). The issue of concern is the implementation efforts (or the lack of them) that should follow ratification.
- 43.
The 2014 amendments to the STCW Convention incorporated a new Regulation I/16 which requires that “Every Party shall be subject to periodic audits by the Organization in accordance with the audit standard to verify compliance with and implementation of the present Convention”.
- 44.
Resolutions A.1070(28) and A.1067(28) respectively.
- 45.
- 46.
Eliopoulou et al. (2016).
- 47.
- 48.
Bhattacharya (2009).
- 49.
Covered by Regulation I/9 of the Convention.
- 50.
Found in Regulation VIII/1 of the Convention and in the accompanying Sections A-VIII/1 and Section B-VIII/1 in the STCW Code.
- 51.
Section A-VIII/1 of the STCW Code.
- 52.
The notion of competency in work performance is not original to the STCW Convention. The notion is drawn management theory in general and has been described as those characteristics including “knowledge, skills, aspects of self-image, social motives, traits, thought patterns, mind-sets, and ways of thinking, feeling and acting” that when used, whether singularly or in various combinations, result in successful performance. (See Dubois and Rothwell (2004)).
- 53.
SOLAS Regulation V/14.
- 54.
This approach, however, raises other issues/challenges. By introducing the notion of “hours of rest”, the IMO appears not to have integrated the ILO’s earlier attempts to address hours of work and manning at sea. With the entry into force of the 1995 amendments, the STCW became the first instrument to address (partially) working time specifically for seafarers (by regulating hours of rest). From 1936 to 1958, the ILO had strived to regulate working time of seafarers using its working time norm established in 1919: 8-h day and 48-h week (ILO Convention No. 1). However, none of the maritime instruments adopted during this period reached entry-into-force thresholds. The introduction of minimum rest periods as a reference system for working time in the maritime domain affected the development of post-1995 regulations such as ILO C180 on Seafarers’ Hours of Work and the Manning of Ships Convention, 1996, the MLC, 2006 and ILO C188 on work in fishing, 2007. While the ILO’s efforts to regulate hours of work had been justified by the need to protect workers against the detrimental effects of long working periods, the ILO 1996 Seafarers’ Hours of Work and the Manning of Ships Convention (C180) disrupted the 1919 norm by introducing standards plausibly inspired by IMO requirements. While the ILO and IMO provisions in respect of seafarers are now relatively similar, they arguably differ substantially from the original ILO principles. This original ethos, apparently recalled in Regulation 2.3 paragraph 3 of the MLC, is undermined by the provisions laid down subsequently in paragraph 5 which allow national standards to set limits: hours of work of 14 h in any 24-h period and 72 h in any 7-day period (maximum); and hours of rest of 10 h in any 24-h period and 77 h in any 7-day period (minimum).
These “debatable” discrepancies and challenges are not the focus of this chapter and are discussed in other fora.
- 55.
Bloom et al. (1956).
- 56.
Manuel (2005).
- 57.
Resolution 7 of the 2010 STCW Manila Conference included in Attachment 3 to the Final Act of the Conference refers to such professionalism.
- 58.
Rasmussen (2016).
- 59.
Ibid.
- 60.
Table B-I/2 in Section B-I/2 of the STCW Code, is an indicative table of the number of certificates required under different regulations of the STCW Convention. They number about 14 (any seafarer will possess anywhere up to 8 certificates at any one time not counting the myriad of company specific training and associated certification.
- 61.
Muller (2018).
- 62.
Ritzer (2018).
- 63.
Supiot (2017).
- 64.
Ellul (1964).
- 65.
Ford (2015).
- 66.
The word “autonomy” (and variants such as “autonomous) has historically been used to refer to human will and decision making. For better or for worse, it has been appropriated in the current technological society to refer to human-made machines which work without the direct intervention of the human being at the operational level.
- 67.
- 68.
- 69.
For a contribution to the discussion about legality and liability of remote-controlled vessels, see an analysis undertaken during the European Commission-funded Project “Maritime Unmanned Navigation through Intelligence in Networks (MUNIN)”. See (http://www.unmanned-ship.org/munin/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/MUNIN-D7-2-Legal-and-Liability-Analysis-for-Remote-Controlled-Vessels-UCC-final.pdf).
- 70.
For example, Lloyd’s Register’s Autonomous Levels indicated in their “Design Code for Unmanned Marine Systems”. The list was somewhat revised in 2018, but the original 2017, reflects the dominant thinking in the industry.
- 71.
Resolution A.960(23) on Recommendations on Training and Certification and on Operational Procedures for Maritime Pilots other than Deep-Sea Pilots.
- 72.
Larrieu (2010).
- 73.
Regulation I/6 of the STCW Convention, 1978, as amended.
- 74.
IMO Model Courses themselves are only recommendatory in legal character.
- 75.
Other examples include the stringent application of training requirements for the IMDG Code in respect of the handling of dangerous goods (mainly mandatory under SOLAS) on board ship, while only a Circular (MSC1/Circ.1216) on “Revised Recommendation on the Safe Transport of Dangerous Cargoes and Related Activities in Port Areas” is the limit of international regulating of the same handling of dangerous goods in ports.
- 76.
The IMO has commenced a scoping exercise to determine, among others, the legal implications of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS).
- 77.
Sampson (2004).
- 78.
- 79.
International Commission on Shipping (2000).
- 80.
Ibid.
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Manuel, M.E., Baumler, R. (2020). The Evolution of Seafarer Education and Training in International Law. In: Mukherjee, P.K., Mejia, M.Q., Xu, J. (eds) Maritime Law in Motion. WMU Studies in Maritime Affairs, vol 8. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31749-2_22
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