Associated Ship and South African Admiralty Jurisdiction

Book excerpt: The Admiralty Jurisdiction Regulation Act 105 of 1983 was a radical and far-reaching, as well as overdue, modernisation of South African admiralty law. Described as 'bold, innovative and comprehensive', it introduced - for the first time anywhere in the world - the provisions enabling an action to be pursued by way of the arrest of an associated ship rather than the ship in respect of which the claim lay. This work, by one of South Africa's pre-eminent shipping lawyers, analyses the nature of this novel action. That involves a review of how the jurisdiction came about; its nature and impact; the problems to which it gives rise and the making of some modest suggestions concerning the road ahead.