Security measures on contractual monetary obligations in maritime private relations

Abstract

The article reveals the features of the institutions for securing contractual monetary obligations, such as seizure of the sea, maritime liens and mortgages, that have emerged in private international maritime law. The legal originality of these interim measures is explained by the specifics of the content of international maritime legal relations and the special role in them of such a property object as a sea vessel. The possibility of compulsory sale of a sea vessel stimulates the debtor in a monetary obligation to properly fulfill it and creates a real property guarantee for the creditor in the event of a debtor’s malfunction in a maritime contractual relationship. Due to the transboundary nature of international merchant shipping and the constant movement of seagoing vessels from one jurisdiction to another, national and international conventional regulation of interim measures in international maritime law provides for the possibility of forcible detention of seagoing vessels in ports and their forced sale. The applicable norms of the Merchant Shipping Code of the Russian Federation and the international conventions on sea seizures, maritime liens and mortgages ratified by the Russian Federation form the basis of the legal positions of Russian courts and arbitration tribunals when considering issues of ensuring maritime claims of a crossborder nature. At the same time, the national procedural norms of the state play an important role — the place of registration of the vessel, the place of the decision on the arrest of the vessel, the place of registration of security encumbrances, the place of compulsory implementation of the mortgage.