Legal approach to marine accidents: a comparative research between Turkish and international perspectives

Izmir Dokuz Eylul University, Maritime Faculty, Department of Maritime Business Administration, Izmir, Turkey

^* Corresponding author: nilkuladegirmenci@gmail.com

Abstract

The importance of prevention of marine accidents increases parallel to the technological improvements in maritime transportation and the rise of sensitiveness to environmental protection. Legal approach to marine accidents can be gathered under three important topics as follows: legal approach to general average, legal approach to collision and legal approach to salvage. The international perspective on the issue has been shaped through international conventions and advisory rules, as applied in the field of general average, and some of their modernized amendments. Turkey which is one of the most important countries in maritime transportation especially as a result of its geographical position, on the one hand aims to protect its existing legal regime to prevent the occurrence of marine accidents and on the other hand follows the updated legal developments on the issue. In the study, it is aimed to point the important facts of general average, salvage and collision and analyze the Turkish and international perspectives comparatively. Thus the success in ensuring uniformity which is targeted through the international studies on these issues is tried to be measured for the Turkey example.