Presumption of ship master's criminal responsibility for narcotic drugs in ship's cargo - maritime reality check
Presumption of ship master's criminal responsibility for narcotic drugs in ship's cargo - maritime reality check

Summary/Abstract: In the aftermath of the ''Coral Sea'' and ''Therese'' cases, the article deals with the problem of criminalization of the master of the ship for the crime of illicit traffic based on command responsibility. The first part of the article gives the general framework of the crimes of illicit traffic and smuggling by sea, and an overview of the ship security regulations as provided by the ISPS code. In the second part of the article, the position of the master of the ship with respect to responsibility for illicit traffic is emphasized. It starts by explaining details from both ''Coral Sea'' and ''Therese'' cases, where masters were indicted and/or prosecuted based solely on their command responsibility. The author tries to elaborate the problem from a maritime law perspective by explaining the evolution and meaning of different aspects of the three functions of the master of the ship today: nautical, administrative and representation of the shipowner. In order to put the potential responsibility of seafarers for the content of cargo into perspective, the reality of containerized cargo shipping is being explained and documented stage-by-stage. Finally, the basic concepts of criminal law are being explained, where principles of ''nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege'' apply. According to that, there can be no analogy between criminal responsibility of the master of the ship for crimes of illicit traffic (where the principle of proven guilt applies) with command responsibility for war crimes.

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