Maritime Navigation Act – Where we are?

Draft Amendment of the Maritime Navigation Act and the State Ports and Merchant Marine Act

 

On September 25, 2014, the long-awaited Law 14/2014, of July 24, on Maritime Navigation (“MNA”) came into force in Spain.

This Law was a breath of fresh air in Spanish maritime law, as it came to unify, simplify and “overcome the contradictions between the different international conventions in force in Spain and the scattered regulations that regulate this matter”, as well as to modernize a rule whose heading was “still constituted by Book III of the Commercial Code of 1885”, and thus adapt it to the current practice of maritime law in the 21st century.

The MNA together with the Consolidated Text of the Law on State Ports and the Merchant Marine, approved by Royal Legislative Decree 2/2011 (“TRLPEMM”) make up the normative body of maritime law in Spain.

The ambitious draft reform of both laws is currently in the process of being processed.

As stated in its own text, this initiative intends to carry out an update of «those contents that have become outdated, cover the gaps in regulation that have been detected in recent years and better coordinate both laws, eliminating those precepts that are they repeat or overlap unnecessarily in the two.

On March 12, 2021, the public consultation phase has been closed so that citizens, organizations and associations could send their observations to this initiative.

Authors

This initiative aims to carry out an update of «those contents that have become outdated, cover the gaps in regulation that have been detected in recent years and better coordinate both laws, eliminating those precepts that are repeated or overlap unnecessarily in both.
Diego de San Simón