Does Qatar need a new maritime law?
The State of Qatar is a distinguished strategic waterfront, and the Qatari legislator regulates Qatari maritime navigation with many relevant laws, the most important of which is Maritime Law [A] No. 15 of 1980, followed by Decree Law [B] No. 29 of 1966 regulating Qatar’s seaports, and Law No. 8 of 2017 regulating [C] Practicing marine business in the waters of the State of Qatar, which is the law that has been replaced by Law No. (16) of 1980 regarding coastal maritime transport [D] (cancelled).
Since the issuance of the Maritime Law regulating marine business since 1980, new developments and challenges have taken place in the marine community, such as plastic pollution and its toxic impact on coral reefs, with its importance to preserving marine life, as well as developments in overfishing methods and their impact on the balance of the marine environment and the diversity of it and also the conservation of fish stocks.
As well as the great diversity of marine transportation with their different names, such as ships, boats, submersible machines and floating machines, whether those marine transportation are dedicated to maritime transport, navigation or entertainment and tourism, as well as the expansion and development that has occurred at the seaports, whether existing or recently established, With its significant positive impact on the international trade movement that takes place by sea. The State of Qatar is exported as an important waterfront and a major station for global trade that travels by sea.
There has also been a great development in the maritime community with maritime sales, which is represented in the growing and continuous technological development on the capacity and speed of the maritime transport, and its effects on the development of international trade that depends on the sea in transport between different countries and societies.
International trade has gone through successive periods of turmoil due to the emerging Corona virus since 2019 until now, especially in long-term contracts, changing consumption and spending patterns, and also changing insurance concepts and protection programs for ships, as well as mixing responsibilities between shipmasters, carriers, owners, shippers and other persons of the maritime community.
Now, more than forty years after the issuance of Qatar Maritime Law No. 15 of 1980, does Qatar need a new maritime law to meet the developments and challenges of maritime trade?
we concluded that more than 40 years after the issuance of the Qatari Maritime Law No. 15 of 1980, to the question of how necessary the State of Qatar needs a new maritime law to meet the developments and challenges of the maritime trade movement, in the light of the new and continuous changes and the development of maritime laws in the Arab region, the collective and bilateral agreements related to the seas, the growing Qatari maritime infrastructure, the dependence of global trade on maritime transport, the demarcation of maritime borders in the Arab region, the maritime fishing strategies, and other developments that have affected the international and regional maritime community.
Does Qatar need a modern maritime law?
In order to answer this question, we find it necessary for us to confirm that the international maritime community has experienced many great changes and challenges in the last 40 years, which is the age of the current Qatari maritime law in application.
Among these developments is the increasing reliance on digital technology, so the huge industry of shipbuilding and the global manufacturing companies has become entirely dependent on digitization to manage this industry. In addition, the ship itself has become loaded with a large amount of modern electronic devices, even fishing methods have changed over the last four decades.
As well as the changes that accrue to the methods of facing maritime collision, ships tow, and the responsibility of the owner, provider, pilot and other persons of maritime law, and the overlap and conflict of those responsibilities.
It is of utmost importance to know what are the needs of the maritime trade that passes through the State of Qatar, or enters it, or what is exported from it, and list those developments that are not regulated by the current maritime law, as well as Qatari seaports; whether old and recently developed, or those that have been established.
One of the important points that should be paid attention to when answering the main question in this article, is the compilation of all the legislative tools that regulate Qatari maritime navigation in a new law is better for the Qatari maritime community, or do those laws remain on isolated islands far from each other?
after elapse of more than forty years the issuance of Qatari Maritime Law No. 15 for year 1980, a question was raised: Is the assembling of all legislative provisions regulating Qatari maritime navigation within a new Law better for the Qatari maritime community, or do these laws remain divergent?
Through examining the maritime laws in the neighboring countries, we find that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia issued a new commercial maritime system under Royal Decree No. (M/33) dated 05/04/1440 AH, as it consisted of a preamble, and three hundred and ninety one articles.
It is worth noting that the new Saudi maritime system was established in detail via its various articles, as its first article included a definition of thirty nine terms related to the various aspects of maritime navigation affairs.
In consideration of the developments in the international navigation, the challenges emerged by the impact of Corona Virus epidemic crisis on the international trade contracts, foremost of which is the maritime trade, as well as the most important investment in the field of gas exploration in Qatari waters, and in light of the developments of Qatari seaports with their matching to their global counterparts, in terms of modernity, accommodation, readiness, diversity, expansion and sustainability, in addition to the call for the establishment of specialized arbitration chamber for maritime disputes, to be the nucleus of future specialized maritime court in Doha, as judges in maritime disputes are being trained and qualified in the same manner as those judges of the English Naval Court.
According to all previous data; we find that it is desirable to include the current Qatari Maritime Law No. 15 of 1980, which reflects the developments of modern maritime navigation, to keep pace with all developments in the marine transport sector, seaports, and recent challenges in the maritime fields with their all forms, and to put in place a mechanism to end any dispute as soon as possible in conformity with the nature of marine transactions.
[A] Published in the Official Gazette 12 on 01/01/1980, pg. 890.
[B] Published in the Official Gazette 07 on 01/01/1966, pg. 3641.
[C] Published in the Official Gazette 07 on 06/21/2017, pg. 3.
[D] Published in the Official Gazette 13 on 01/01/1980, pg. 3290.