Brussels Maritime Conventions

international agreements on various questions of maritime law that were worked out by the International Maritime Committee and adopted at diplomatic conferences in Brussels, conferences convened on the initiative of the Belgian Government. From 1950 to 1968, 12 conferences were held, at which 16 conventions were adopted. The Brussels conventions establish mainly the rules of civil law governing relations arising in commercial maritime navigation, such as the transport of cargoes, passengers, and baggage; remuneration for damage resulting from collisions between vessels; remuneration for salvage; the limitation of the liability of shipowners; and so on.

The most important conventions are the International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules of Law With Respect to Collisions Between Vessels, signed on Sept. 23, 1910, which lays down the main rules governing property responsibility for damage resulting from the collisions between vessels and which has been ratified by more than 50 states; the International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules of Law Respecting Assistance and Salvage at Sea, signed on Sept. 23, 1910, together with amendments adopted on May 27, 1967, which lays down the circumstances under which persons salvaging vessels and cargoes and assisting persons in disasters at sea are entitled to remuneration and which has been ratified by 50 countries; and the International Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules of Law Relating to Bills of Lading and Protocol of Signature, signed on Aug. 25, 1924, which mainly lays down rules governing the responsibility of the carrier in the carriage of cargo by sea in execution of bills of lading and which has been ratified by 40 countries.

Since 1926 the USSR has been a party to the Brussels conventions on the collision of vessels and rescue at sea (1910), all the main rules of which are reproduced in the Commercial Sea Navigation Code (KTM) of the USSR. The KTM also includes the most important clauses of the Brussels convention of 1924 on bills of lading, although the USSR is not a party to this convention.