ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the features of maritime cabotage law as seen in the regulatory framework of countries with a maritime cabotage regime. Hence, under a regional maritime cabotage regime where a group of countries agree to a single regulatory framework, the concept of maritime cabotage is better understood. The chapter looks at how the various features of maritime cabotage law affect the commercial behaviour of shipowners and how the application of the law impacts on the economic development of a country. The principal features of maritime cabotage are that the ship: must be built in the cabotage country; it must be owned by a national of the cabotage country; it must employ only or mainly indigenous crew; and it must be registered and documented in the cabotage country. Therefore, a cabotage country can set the threshold of requirements that a ship operator in the cabotage trade should satisfy for registration without fear of breaching international law.
