Shipping 2025

CHILE Law and Practice Contributed by: Ricardo Rozas, Max Morgan and Stefano Perretta, Jorquiera & Rozas Abogados

• ensuring compliance with laws, regulations and other provisions concerning the technical and professional issues relating to the Chilean merchant navy; • monitoring and ensuring compliance with public order and discipline on board vessels and naval artifacts; • sanctioning crew members for professional misconduct/lack of due diligence or faults against public order, safety and discipline; • enforcing safety measures in connection with vessels, naval artifacts, port operations and (generally) maritime, river and lake activities; • initiating a maritime enquiry into accidents and losses involving vessels or persons in Chilean territorial waters, channels, lakes or navigable rivers to determine the causes and the parties responsible, and to establish the professional, technical and disciplinary liabili - ties that may apply; • exercising maritime police faculties; and • ensuring the preservation of the marine envi - ronment. 1.3 Domestic Legislation Applicable to Ship Registration Any type of vessel (whether constructed or under construction) or naval device can be registered at the following registries kept by DIRECTEMAR: • the Large Vessels Registry; • the Minor Vessels Registry; • the Vessels in Construction Registry; • the Naval Devices Registry; and • the Mortgage, Liens and Prohibitions Regis - try. The rules relevant to the organisation and opera - tion of registries, and the procedures, formali - ties and requirements of registration, are con - tained in the Navigation Law and the Regulations

for Registration of Vessels and Naval Artifacts (Decree 163 of 1981). 1.4 Requirements for Ownership of Vessels Merchant vessels can be registered by Chilean nationals or citizens. If the owner is a corpora - tion, it must meet the following requirements to be deemed Chilean: • having its registered offices and true and effective headquarters in Chile; • having a Chilean president, manager and majority of directors or administrators, as the case may be; and • the majority of the equity capital being owned by Chilean individuals or bodies corporate. Special vessels (eg, tugboats, dredgers, scien - tific or recreational vessels) can be registered in Chile by foreign natural persons as long as they are domiciled in the country or their main place of business is located locally (this rule does not apply to fishing vessels). Without prejudice to the foregoing, applying the principle of international reciprocity, the Maritime Authority may – under conditions of equivalence – release from the above requirements fishing companies incorporated in Chile with a majority participation of foreign capital, when in the coun - try of origin of such capital there are require - ments for the registration of foreign vessels and provisions for the development of fishing activi - ties in accordance with said principle, which can be used by natural or legal persons from Chile. Vessels under construction can be registered in a special registry for this purpose. Once the con - struction is completed, the owner must request its registration in the corresponding ship’s reg - istry.

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