AbstractsLaw & Legal Studies

The discussion over whether or not the Icelandic government needs to implement an International Register for its shipping industry, had been an ongoing debate for over two decades before the issue was finally addressed and the Icelandic International Ship Register (ISS) was introduced. Since its introduction not a single vessel has registered and no interest has been shown in regards to addressing that lack of success. The objective of this research is to examine why the current international registry has not achieved its set goal in registering vessels under the Icelandic flag. In other words, the faults and drawbacks of the register will be examined, as well as which factors need to be taken in to consideration to obtain desirable outcomes. The examination will be conducted with the relevance of a policy structure in mind. The findings of this research concluded that a large part of the unsuccessfulness of IIS was due to the Icelandic Government’s lack of preparation and research on the matter as well as insufficient policy formulation concerning the registry and the Icelandic maritime industry. A crucial factor of its failure lies in the omission of the fourth paragraph of the 11th Article of the bill that was presented to Parliament. By changing the bills intentions of allowing shipping companies to hire international crew on wages based on the crew members domestic union contracts did it render the register incapable of competing with foreign flags.