SHIPPING

Marine Salvage in Greece

By Kostas Spaidiotis

The law

The law Greece ratified the International Convention on Salvage 1989 (the “Convention”) in 1997. This article does not seek to provide a comprehensive analysis of the Convention, on which extensive literature is available. Instead, it comments briefly on selected issues arising under Greek law and practice, while including such general background as is necessary to place those comments in context.
The Convention applies to salvage claims brought before the Greek courts, irrespective of the nationality of the parties or any other connections the case may have. For matters not regulated by the Convention, a court may need to consider domestic law or other applicable international instruments. In matters falling outside the Convention’s scope, the applicable law is determined in accordance with EU Regulation No. 593/2008 (“Rome I”).

SHIPPING

Marine Labour Accidents under Greek Law: Compensation, Jurisdiction and Applicable Law 

By Kostas Spaidiotis

It is an unfortunate reality that human activity inevitably involves the risk of failures and accidents. The shipping industry is no exception, regardless of the safety measures implemented from time to time. This article provides a brief introduction to marine labour accidents under Greek law and seeks to clarify several issues that frequently give rise to confusion.
Marine Labour Accidents
Under Greek law, an accident at work is generally defined as an incident in which an employee sustains an injury as a result of a sudden and violent event occurring in the course of performing their duties. The same definition applies to marine labour accidents, with the additional requirement that the services are performed by a seafarer on board a ship. However, this definition is too narrow to encompass all cases recognised by Greek case law.

SHIPPING

Ship arrest in Greece

By Kostas Spaidiotis

Law and Procedure

Α. THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK

Greece has acceded to the International Convention relating to the Arrest of Sea-Going Ships signed at Brussels in 1952 (henceforth “the Brussels Convention or the Convention”) but it has not implemented so far the newer Convention on Arrest of Ships of 1999, which notably, as compared to the former, has been ratified by only few countries up to date. Since in most cases of ships’ arrest, there will be connections to more than one jurisdictions that will bring about the application of the said Convention (i.e. the one of 1952), the basic provisions of the same are briefly discussed below.