Responsibility and Accountability in Maritime Law: Criminalisation of the Ship's Master

The criminalisation of seafarers has been observed as a growing phenomenon for more than forty years, presenting a picture of increasing liability upon the Master even though their responsibilities remain essentially unchanged in generations of maritime law. Because of the demand by society to find someone to blame for environmental and human loss, there is a constant flow of cases, which serve to confirm the phenomenon but offer no solutions to defend the innocent. The structure of the mar...