Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly

Edited by Professor Francis D Rose

Document

ARREST OF ASSOCIATED SHIPS FROM A COMMON LAW PERSPECTIVE

Bulat Karimov*

The Arrest Conventions 1952 and 1999 provide for the arrest of ships owned by the person who would be liable for the claim in personam. The widespread use of one-ship companies has effectively circumvented these provisions. It has allowed shipowners to limit or avoid their liability by distributing their fleet between one-ship companies. The only country that has introduced separate associated ship provisions is South Africa. Other countries do not follow this example and generally deal with one-ship companies through beneficial ownership and piercing the corporate veil. The article examines the law and practice of arresting associated ships in South Africa, the US , England, Singapore and Australia. Particular focus is paid to the impropriety criterion, which is part of piercing the corporate veil but is irrelevant to the South African approach. It is concluded that the primary function of impropriety is preventing overreaching, which means subversion of the idea of separate legal personality of a shipowning company. The “objective” and “reasonableness” approaches are suggested as a middle ground to the problem discussed.

* Research Associate, Centre for Maritime Law, NUS. The author would like to thank Professor Stephen Girvin for his valuable mentorship, revisions and suggestions and Associate Professor Graham Bradfield for the discussion of ideas reflected in the article. The usual disclaimer applies.

The following abbreviations are used:

AJRA 1983: South African Admiralty Jurisdiction Regulation Act 105 of 1983, as amended;

ALRC, Civil Admiralty Jurisdiction: Australian Law Reform Commission, Civil Admiralty Jurisdiction (Report No 33, 14 December 1986);

Arrest Convention 1952: International Convention Relating to the Arrest of Sea-going Ships, Brussels, 1952;

Arrest Convention 1999: International Convention on the Arrest of Ships, Geneva, 1999;

Berlingieri: F Berlingieri, Berlingieri on Arrest of Ships: A Commentary on the 1952 & 1999 Arrest Convention (vols 1, 2), 6th edn (Abingdon, 2017);

Bradfield: G Bradfield, “Arrest of Associated Ships”, Myburgh (ch.2) 35;

Cremean: D Cremean, Admiralty Jurisdiction Law and Practice: Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia, 5th edn (Sydney, 2020);

Davies: M Davies, “The Future of Ship Arrest”, Myburgh (ch.13) 307;

Hare: J Hare, Shipping Law & Admiralty Jurisdiction in South Africa, 2nd edn (Cape Town, 1999);

Hofmeyr: D Cooke, Hofmeyr’s Admiralty Law, 3rd edn (Cape Town, 2025);