As a consequence of the increased popularity of nautical tourism, deaths and bodily injuries to persons in the sea have become more frequent and numerous. This is especially the case in those coastal areas where not only officially declared bathing places, but also every beach, is teeming with swimmers during the summer months. The danger does not come primarily from larger vessels but from various types of smaller craft skimming the water surface at speed and often towing water-skiers. Yet in spite of such an incidence of physical injuries to persons in the water it is unusual that a maritime code or a law should regulate the question of tort or extra-contractual liability of the shipowner or operator for death and bodily injuries caused by his vessel to persons in the sea. Among the rare examples of such specific regulation there is the recently promulgated Yugoslav Law on Maritime and Inland Water Navigation (hereinafter referred to as the law) which came into force on Jan. 1, 1978.

It is an ambitious attempt to unify the internal regulations in the field of maritime law. This comprehensive body of law (it has 1,046 Articles) which includes an entire range of substantive (civil law, penal, administrative) and procedural regulations, has a special chapter dedicated to the regulation of tortious liability of the operator.

Liability for collision and nuclear damage is not included in this chapter and it is treated elsewhere in accordance with the solutions adopted by the respective international conventions. This separate chapter of the operator’s tortious liability comprises his liability for pollution caused by oil which is carried as cargo, for damage to floating objects and for death and bodily injuries to persons outside the vessel. While the other liabilities regulated in this chapter reproduce in the main the relevant international enactments in these fields, it is in the field of the operator’s liability for physical injury to persons who are in the sea that the law shows an interesting solution. Before giving a summary presentation of this solution, some preliminary explanations are necessary.

It should be borne in mind that this law regulates tortious civil liability as opposed to administrative and criminal liability. These are regulated by other enactments and are enforced, in the first instance, by special commissions attached to the Harbour Master’s Office (in case of administrative penal sanctions) or by the ordinary courts (in cast of penal proceedings).

The regulations which we are analysing apply equally to warships, hydroplanes while on the water and to boats (a marine boat is defined as a floating object with less than 15 gross tons and not exceeding 12 metres in length).