FAL Convention. Electronic documentation for ports replacing paper.

On 1 January 2017 the Facilitation Convention was amended to provide for exchange of FAL data electronically from 8 April 2019. The amendments provide for a transition period of 12 months during which paper and electronic documentation co-exist for FAL documents.

The amendments provide that consideration should also be given to such a Single Window serving as the mechanism through which the public authorities communicate decisions and other information covered by this Convention in connection with the arrival, stay and departure of ships, persons and cargo.

The documents in question are:

General Declaration

Cargo Declaration

Ship’s Stores Declaration

Crew’s Effects Declaration

Crew List

Passenger List

Dangerous Goods Manifest

The document required under the Universal Postal Convention for mail

Maritime Declaration of Health

Security-related information as required under SOLAS regulation XI-2/9.2.2

Advance electronic cargo information for customs risk assessment purposes

Advanced Notification Form for Waste Delivery to Port Reception Facilities, when

communicated to the Organization.

 

The amendments only affect FAL documents and not the certificates of liability insurance under the CLC, the Nairobi Wreck Removal Convention, the Bunker Oil Pollution Convention. These must be carried on board vessels as paper certificates.

 

Published by

Professor Simon Baughen

Professor Simon Baughen was appointed as Professor of Shipping Law in September 2013 (previously Reader at the University of Bristol Law School). Simon Baughen studied law at Oxford and practised in maritime law for several years before joining academia. His research interests lie mainly in the field of shipping law, but also include the law of trusts and the environmental law implications of the activities of multinational corporations in the developing world. Simon's book on Shipping Law, has run to seven editions (soon to be eight) and is already well-known to academics and students alike as by far the most learned and approachable work on the subject. Furthermore, he is now the author of the very well-established practitioner's work Summerskill on Laytime. He has an extensive list of publications to his name, including International Trade and the Protection of the Environment, and Human Rights and Corporate Wrongs - Closing the Governance Gap. He has also written and taught extensively on commercial law, trusts and environmental law. Simon is a member of the Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law, a University Research Centre within the School of Law, and he currently teaches at Swansea on the LLM in:Carriage of Goods by Sea, Land and Air; Charterparties Law and Practice; International Corporate Governance.

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