Conventions

Abstract

In this chapter it is intended to examine some of the provisions of a few important conventions which have a direct bearing on the legal status of government merchant ships. These conventions are:

• (a) the Convention on the International Regime of Maritime Ports signed at Geneva on December 9, 1923 ¹ (hereinafter referred to as the Geneva Convention of 1923);

• (b) the International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules relating to the Immunity of State-owned Vessels signed at Brussels on April 10, 1926,² and the Additional Protocol signed at Brussels on May 24, 1934 ³, (hereinafter referred to as the Brussels Convention of 1926 and the Additional Protocol of 1934 respectively); and

• (c) the Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone ¹ and the Convention on the High Seas ² (both adopted at the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, Geneva, 1958, and hereinafter referred to as the first and the second Geneva Conventions of 1958, respectively).³