Constitution of the Maritime Safety Committee of the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization - Advisory Opinion

The follovii~g ilzfornation frw thc Rczistrjr of the Intcrnntlol~?~l
Court of Justice is cor.~iiï.iunic,tatthe Press;

The Internaticna 1 ourt of Justiçc tcday (8 Surie 196~) gnvc its
Advisory !!piilion in the s.inttcr of tho constitutio n f the Waritir.~ S~afoty
Co~uïitSeo of the Tnt es-Govorm,~entd Ihri tinc Consultativerirgx.ir4ation
(IWO). By resalutianof 19 Jawmry SpSY, trznsnittedtc the Cowt and
filed in the Recistry on 25 1;izrch195g1 the dssei-ibly of thatOrgnnizafion

decided to rcquest the Court tc givo an iidvizory Opinion on tha falloming
que ation:

"1s the Maritine Safety Coimitter: of the Inter-Govcrm:~antBL Maritime
C~nsultntivo Orga.riixztion, v~hich vas ~lccted on 15 January 1959,
canstituted in ~ccord~nce mith the Convention for the EsS~blls~ent of
the Or~riaiz~tion?~

By nine votes to fivo, the Court gzve a negativeanswer to th^
question. The Presidcnt culcJudge I:Iorrno Qxintma ~ppended to the
Opinion thcirdisscntingopinions. In itç (?,pinion the Court first
raoallcd the fcctç.

The Convention rcferred to in thc Zcqucst for FX .kdvisorG ypinion
cstzblishcda body knoan as the Inter-Gcvcrnr~cntal Maritime CcncuLtotive

ûrgwization, uhich consistcd of an Assetlbly, a Council. a Jlasitine
Snfety Co~~iittee. This Ccmittsc mas rcsponsiblcfor the ccnsideration
of my nrLtter vithin thc scopc of thc Oryanizatia dnircctly affccting
nuitiile szfety. Itç corlp~üiti~fi md the nodo of desicnaking j.tsMewbers
were governed by Qtiçlc 28(a) of the Convention which reads cs follaws:

"The IiiT,nritiScfety Cor?_i:ii.(;tecshnlconsis'c of fourteen
I-
----.----A-~ted by thc llsser~bly fror~ tho Rlc~.--crs,&~vcrnr-lents
of thosc n2tions 11cv-i.nsan iripcrt~nt intcscstin r~nritinc
sefaty, of which no$ -lcss thZn cight shall be the larscst
s11*~-onnina- n2ticns, and the renaindershall be clcctcd sc
as to ensurc sdequntc rcprc~cntaticn of EIcnbers, guverments
of other nations nith nn inportantlntcrcat in ii~aritino scfety,
such as n~tions intcrestcd Sn the supply of lnrgcnulbers of
crehrs or in th^ carri,7,eccf 1nr;c nw.lbors of bcrthsd and
e
unbcrtha-l gasscn8:crs, :~ndcf ï.lejor6cagr::phical areas."

IVhen the i;ssenbly bcznn its c~nsidoration of the clcction of 14enbers
of thc Co~i~~iittee,it ht:dbefore it 3 norking paper scttingout, in
dcsccnding crder of tctalgroas rc;jistércd tcnnsgc, the na11es of Menber
States. On this ListLihcriü uns third md Pznnna eighth, In clcctln~:
thc eight Macbc~s ahich hcd to bc the lar6;es-t ship-owning nations, horevor,

the Assei~bly slectcdncithcr Liberia nox Panma. The debztes h~ving
reve~~lcd a aide divergence of vievis as to thc intcrpretationcf ~lrticlc 28(n),
the qucstion vihather the Coi;~~ittcc hnd hccn c~nstitutedin accordmce nith
£bat Article vns, on the proposa1 of Liberia, silhï~itted tc the Courta

The Courtthcn considcred thc FJlswsr which shouldbe given to. that
questi~n,

It had bcon contondcdbcforc the Court that the Assc::ibLy rilas entitled
the
to refusc to olcçt EiFcrio md Pmma for the following rcasons:
Asszrribly, it mns crhued, iïns vcstzd r:;.ithCLdiscrctionary por-rerta
dcterî-~inc i+!hich ~,To;!~cof the ~r2~~niza.tion hcd m inportmi interest innaritinesafety; in elactingthe eight largcst ship-ovnln~ nztions,it
vas cmpaivered ta cxcludo those thzt in its judgzent did not have an '
inpcrtmt intercst in nnritineszfety; its discretiondry ponsr axtcnded
alao to the deturr-~ination of nhich nctions sere or nere not the larges*

ship-ovniw nations,

The Court observed thnt it had be2n sausht to Eind in the expression
"electedtt, tvl-iich applied to al1 the Me-ilb~rsof thc Ccii:i~litteen natioiz of
choice, but It nas of opillion that .that contention placed in a çubordinntc
position the spccific provisionof Article 28(2) in r~l~~tian tc thu eight
lmgcs t ship-crnnirig n,.;tic?ns. !Bis underlyingprincipleof the Article
mas that those nations s11ould he in prcpondcrsncc oir the Cocmittcc.

Rbich~ver mzre thosc nntians,thny nerc noccssnrily te be appointed to the
Cemittee: thnt they each possessed an inpcrtznt intorcstin naritinc
safe'cy had bsen ~kcccpt~d as nxio!~atic. Ths debate -;,hic h2d takon place
upon the dreftscf thc Articlein 1946 in tho United EAnritino ConsulLctive
Couneil and in 1948 st the Ufited Mcttions Idi~itinc Confcrcnccconfiri:!ed
fhat principlb.

Thc Court next considcrcd thc i'ioxiing rjfthe mrds "the lca.rge~tship-

ovming nationsr', If ~'zticle 28(a) nere constmied es confcrrin~upon the
Assemblyan authoritg enabling it to çhoose thosc n,-~tians uncontrcllcd by
any objc¢ti+etest of any kind thc structurebuilt into the Article to
ensure their prcdorfinancc on the Gormittcc -;~ould collqçc. If wzs apparent
thzG sone basis of ncnsurcnent nust bc applicd. Thc lagcat ship-ovming
nations vierc to be elcctcd on the atrength of thchr tonnzge, The only
question nas in mhnt sense Article 28 (a) contcqlatcd that ~hips should bo
owned by or bclong to thca, Liberia and Panma had ccntei~ded thnt the

saio test i~a~ FE~~S~OTC~ tlînna!:~ but ccrt~ilz othar Sintes had subriitted
thnt the proper iatorpretntion of thc Articlescquircd that ships should
bclong to nntionals of the State v>hosc flng theg fl~w, h c~nparison of
the tcxtscf kticlcs 60 2nd.28(a} of the Ccinventicn for thc Establishment
of IMCO and airexai:~iila-tiorz of the practicu follcwedbj-the Bssenbly in the
implc~zentation of kticlcs 17(c) and 41 of tlictCr;nvcntion pcrsuaded the
Court to tkc viwr that it ;tas mlikcly thnt whcn Ilsticle 28(a) i-;asdrnfted,
my critcricn otherthzn regis tered tomcg~ NEE ~~nt~~ipla%~da That

crltoric~n lias norcovorprctctj.ca1, certain a11d capable f.!oas y application;
it mas thnt which aas most cons~n?~nt iilithintornntionzl prncticc,nnritine
usege and o-ther in'ccrnaticnL21 rzaritinc convc-ntiono. Tho conclusion roachcd a
by the Court ans that the Larg~stçhip-onning nations were those hming the
larges* registored shlp tonnage,

The Caurt fincllyobszrvcdthat its intcrpr~ tntion of izliclc 28 (3)
;vas consistentnith thr sancral purposc of thc Conventicn the spccial
The Ccurt could nct subscribc
functi.onç .~f the Msitine Saf~tyGa;s~itt~~,
tg m int erpretution nhich rtould capovox the Asscilibly to rcfusc nenbcrship
of the Co~~iittee Lo a Stzte sogmdloss of thê fmt thnt it ~mked ailong the
first eigh t Iri tzrris of ro~istcrcd tomagc. Giinsequcntly, in clec ting
noither Liberianor Ppinar1cC ,hich wre i-ncludcd mon6 thc cight, the
Assenbly ha3 faildd ta czn~ly witk hticle 28(a} of the Convention.