The flag state of a commercial vessel is the state under whose laws the vessel is registered or licensed.
The flag state has the authority and responsibility to enforce regulations over vessels registered under its flag, including those relating to inspection, certification, and issuance of safety and pollution prevention documents. As a ship operates under the laws of its flag state, these laws are used if the ship is involved in an admiralty case.
The term "flag of convenience" describes the business practice of registering a merchant ship in a sovereign state different from that of the ship's owners, and flying that state's civil ensign on the ship. Ships are registered under flags of convenience to reduce operating costs or avoid the regulations of the owner's country.
Panama is currently the world's largest flag state, with almost a quarter of the world's ocean-going tonnage registered there.
Read more about Flag State: Ship Register, Regulations
Famous quotes containing the words flag and/or state:
““Justice” was done, and the President of the Immortals, in Æschylean phrase, had ended his sport with Tess. And the d’Urberville knights and dames slept on in their tombs unknowing. The two speechless gazers bent themselves down to the earth, as if in prayer, and remained thus a long time, absolutely motionless: the flag continued to wave silently. As soon as they had strength they arose, joined hands again, and went on.
The End”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
“The state is not “abolished,” it withers away.”
—Friedrich Engels (1820–1895)