BELGIUM Law and Practice Contributed by: André Kegels, Kegels Advocaten
1. Maritime and Shipping Legislation and Regulation 1.1 Domestic Laws Establishing the Authorities of the Maritime and Shipping Courts Main Legislation The main legislation establishing the authorities of the maritime and shipping courts in Belgium is as follows: • the Belgian federal Judicial Code; • the New Belgian federal Maritime Code (NBMC) (as of 1 September 2020); • IMO-Conventions (such as the AFS-Convention, BWM-Convention, CSC-Convention, LL-Conven - tion, MARPOL-Convention and Protocols 1978 and 1997, PAL-Convention, SFV-Convention, SOLAS-Convention and protocols 1978 and 1988, SRC-Convention, STCW-Convention, STCW-F- Convention and TMC-Convention); and • the various regional shipping decrees. It should also be noted that from 1 January 2025, the Act on Carriage over the Interior Waterways of 1936 has not been in force and has been replaced by addi - tional provisions in the NBMC. Common Maritime and Shipping Claims The following claims are commonly filed in Belgium: • cargo and charterparty claims; • non-vessel operating common carrier (NVOCC) claims; • ship arrests; • salvage claims;
1.2 Port State Control Status of the Paris MOU
Belgium is a party to the Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control (the “Paris MOU”), which is an agreement between 28 maritime authorities. This system of port state control applies in Belgium. For more information, see the Paris MOU website. Port State Control The maritime authority in Belgium is a specialised service of the Federal Public Service of Mobility and Transport: Port State Control (PSC), based in Antwerp. The PSC’s authorities and powers of inspection and control include: • examination of the ship’s documents (see Annex 10 of the Paris MOU Memorandum); • verification of the overall condition of the ship, to determine whether it complies with various con - ventions; and • controls on compliance with onboard operational • restrict operations of the ship; • order the ship to move; and • indicate measures to be taken by the ship to be released from PSC sanctions. Decisions by the PSC are regularly appealed, espe - cially when the vessel is detained. Records show that the courts do not often consider the PSC’s decisions to be erroneous. Since the enactment of the 2006 Maritime Labour Convention (MLC), and notably its recent amend - ments, the PSC has intensified scrutiny of onboard employment practices to verify their conformity with the MLC. Non-compliance is a frequent cause for sanctioning and even detention. For example, it was decided in a 2025 appeal related to the R/V Belgica , a research vessel manned by a military and civilian crew, requirements. The PSC can: • stop the ship; • detain the ship;
• collisions and groundings; • stevedoring-related claims; • ships’ agency claims; • customs and excise claims; • criminal drug-related claims; • port state control detention; • marine insurance claims; and
• claims for defended marine investigations by way of court-appointed and marine-dedicated survey - ors or assessors.
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