The extent to which a shipowner has to take measures to protect a seafarer from the risk of being injured or killed by the criminal acts of pirates in the context of his/her employment: an English negligence law perspective

Abstract

The present thesis examines the process of the application of the test of the hypothetical reasonable person when determining the precautionary measures that should have been taken by a shipowner to meet the legal standard of care required of a shipowner in discharge of his/her common law duty of care to safeguard the health and safety of a seafarer in the context of his/her employment in a particular case. The examination is centred on the question of the extent to which a shipowner has to take measures to protect a seafarer from the risk of being injured or killed by the criminal acts of pirates in the context of his/her employment, with a view to clarifying the legal grounds upon which a seafarer, or the dependants of a seafarer, may be entitled to claim compensation from a shipowner for personal injury or loss of life, which the seafarer suffered as a result of a maritime piracy attack in the context of his/her employment.

The outcome of the research is that a shipowner should conduct a maritime piracy specific risk assessment to introduce and enforce a maritime piracy specific ship security plan for the voyage to be undertaken, should inform a seafarer about the outcome of such assessment, and should harden the vessel against the risks identified by such assessment. If the voyage to be undertaken is in designated high risk areas, in areas in which a significant number of maritime piracy attacks has been reported, or in areas in which a significant number of incidents of injury or death of seafarers as a result of maritime piracy attacks has occurred, then a shipowner should not deploy private armed guards on board his/her ship. Conversely, an obligation to re-route his/her ship from a dangerous area may rest on a shipowner, but only in some exceptional circumstances.

Notwithstanding the focus of the thesis on the specific facts of maritime piracy, its example may offer an understanding of the future evolution of the application of the test of the hypothetical reasonable person in the employment context in general.

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ORCID for Melinee Kazarian: orcid.org/0000-0003-0740-3155

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