Shipping 2026

PANAMA Law and Practice Contributed by: Nadya Price and Joaquín De Obarrio, Patton Moreno & Asvat

1. Maritime and Shipping Legislation and Regulation 1.1 Domestic Laws Establishing the Authorities of the Maritime and Shipping Courts Law 8 of 30 March 1982 (which created the Maritime Courts and dictates the Rules of Maritime Procedure) – along with the modifications, additions and dele - tions adopted by Law No 11 of 1986, Law No 12 of 2009, and others – establishes a specialised maritime jurisdiction composed of two first-instance Maritime Courts, of equal standing, and a Maritime Court of Appeals with nationwide jurisdiction. The most common maritime and shipping claims are the following. • Ordinary proceedings (in personam). • Special proceedings, regarding: (a) collision; (b) ship-owner’s limitation of liability; (c) enforcement of maritime liens (in rem); (d) enforcement of a naval mortgage; (e) creditors’ concursus; (f) abbreviated proceedings seeking summary judgment; and (g) special proceedings for enforcement of domestic and foreign decisions. All these claims are subject to the specialised mari - time jurisdiction of the Republic of Panama. 1.2 Port State Control Port state control (PSC) inspections in Panama are carried out by technical staff of the General Direc - torate of Merchant Marine of the Panama Maritime Authority (PMA), which is the government entity that must guarantee compliance with the maritime con - ventions approved and ratified by Panama. These inspections are carried out in accordance with the provisions of international maritime conventions, such as: • the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974 (SOLAS);

• the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973 (MARPOL); • the International Convention on Standards of Train - ing, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, 1978 (STCW); and • the International Ballast Water Management Con - vention (2004) (BWM) for the purposes of identify - ing deficiencies in ships visiting Panamanian ports. Ships that may be rendered sub-standard under the terms of these conventions should take measures to remedy the deficiencies found, and the PMA inspec - tors will ensure that any such remedial measures are taken to safeguard human life and to guarantee safety and protection of the marine environment. Panama is part of the Viña del Mar Memorandum of Agreement (the Latin American Agreement on Port State Control of Vessels) and the Tokyo Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). As such, PSC inspections are carried out following the guidelines of these two memorandums, and are also based on the guidelines established in International Maritime Organization (IMO) Resolution A.1138 (31), adopted on 4 December 2019, updating the procedure for PSC inspections. For marine casualties such as in grounding, investiga - tions are carried out by the PMA as the flag state. In practice, these functions are not mixed with the obli - gations of the authority as port state. As a flag state, it is the Maritime Casualty Investigations Department of the PMA that co-ordinates casualty investigations aboard flag ships around the world as well as inci - dents in Panama’s jurisdictional waters. In the case of pollution or wreck removal, the Directo - rate General of Ports of the PMA is the entity in charge of investigating and carrying out related actions. 1.3 Domestic Legislation Applicable to Ship Registration Laws 55 and 57 of 6 August 2008, known as the Maritime Commerce Law and the General Merchant Marine Law, respectively, are the legislation that gov - ern all matters related to the registration of domestic and international service vessels under the laws of the Republic of Panama.

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