In its complete modernization Code of Private Maritime Law progresses government 65 years after the establishment of the current code. Technological developments, commercial practices and financial schemes that have emerged in recent decades, as well as developments in the field of information technology, are not subject to the law drafted in 1958. A typical example is the container ship industry, which has literally changed international trade. As well as financing through export credit organizations or chartering bareboats. In addition, Greece’s accession to the EU and its compliance with international law and the many international agreements relating to shipping that have been ratified over the past 65 years have long made it imperative to reform the Code of Private Maritime Law.

After extensive and thorough consultations with all the bodies involved, including the Greek scientific community as well as the representative bodies of the Greek commercial shipping, the Ministry of Shipping and Insular Policy submitted to the Parliament a draft law “Code of Private Maritime Law and Other Urgent Provisions”. “.

The main directions of the bill and the issues it addresses include expanding the conceptual distinction of the vessel so that its legal meaning approaches technology, in order to unify the regime and include categories that have so far operated in the gray zone. At the same time, a large group of static shipyards, which are currently of great economic, business and national interest (especially floating oil storage facilities, cranes, platforms), are being identified, and the rules applicable to them are being specified. It also establishes a legal framework for the electronic operation of the registry, storage of documents and digital issuance of certificates, as well as unifies the regulation of collateral on board ships, in particular with a unified regulation of preferred and ordinary maritime mortgages.

At the same time, the shipowner’s and shipowner’s liability regime is being refined and is now directly linked to special liability regimes introduced by international conventions, such as liability for oil or fuel pollution. The activity of ship management, which has the greatest organizational, financial and, accordingly, legal significance for Greek shipping, is recognized, and the regulation of the two main contracts for the operation of the ship, the charter and the carriage of goods by sea, is reformed, with now separate rules rather than uniform and in many unclear applicable rules . In line with the shipping process, the bill also modernizes the chartering regime in line with international trade practices, providing sufficient legal freedom and protecting legal certainty. However, the structure of passenger traffic is also being reformed, using international uniform legal norms as a starting point.

The current Code of Private Maritime Law (KIND) was ratified by Law 3816/1958 (A΄ 32). His lawmaking lasted ten years. According to an analysis of the implications of the regulation, “although as a piece of legislation at the time it was a step forward from the previous law, mainly because it first organized the vast business of various maritime institutions, it suffered from several obvious weaknesses from the outset.”