Estonia at a Crossroad: are the Newly Emerging Rotterdam Rules Acceptable in Maritime Law?

Abstract

Estonians have been a sea-going nation for ages, and have their own Vikings similarly to other nations around the Baltic Sea. The oldest sea-going boat of Bronze Age with length of 7,5m, width of 2,5m and mighty bow, found at at Sõrve peninsula of Saaremaa (island Ösel) is 2700 years old.1 Estonia with land territory of 45, 228km2 and population of 1,34 million has over thousand islands and overall coastline about 3793km (incl. mainland territory of 1242km). It has several good ports with annual turnover around 50mln tons (mainly transit cargo) and 7 mln passengers. Due to some reasons the Estonian Ship Registry is today not so popular for bigger vessels as the Registry of Bareboat Chartered Ships at the Estonian Maritime Administration.