Sanctions Compliance Risks
in International Shipping: Closure of Five
Crimean Ports, the Sanctions Regime
in Respect of Ukraine/Russia and Related
Compliance Challenges
Henning Jessen
Abstract In 2014, Ukraine’s Ministry of Infrastructure issued a Directive entitled
“On Closure of Sea Ports”. This legal act has liquidated the administration of five
ports located in the territory of the “Autonomous Republic of Crimea” (as annexed
by Russia) and intends to cut those ports off from international shipping. In particular, calls to the closed ports can make owners and crews subject to legal proceedings and put vessels at risk of arrest. However, Ukraine does not exercise
effective political control over the closed Crimean ports and it can only enforce
the Directive (e.g. via detention) if a vessel calls at a closed port first and then at a
Ukrainian port.
It is unclear whether the closure has enough potential to generate any further legal
effects as any legal enforcement would also depend on a national Court’s view on
who is acting as the legitimate authority in Crimea. Further sanctions regimes as
applied both by the EU and the USA complicate the current legal situation. The
result has been characterised as “opaque”: Enforcement of those sanctions ultimately
depends on different perceptions of national States. A good example of practical
legal difficulties—arising partly also from the local “bottleneck” geography—is the
fact the vessels transiting the so-called “Kerch Strait” (off eastern Crimea) and
paying pilotage fees could technically violate the Ukraine sanctions regime although
intending to trade into the Sea of Azov which connects the Black Sea to both
Ukrainian and Russian ports.
In sum, the paper will try to highlight some of the current legal and practical
problems associated with the Ukraine sanctions regime as it is continuously intensified since mid-2014. The author will both apply a perspective from public international law as well as a more “compliance-oriented” view from the perspective of
The views expressed in this paper are personal and should not be attributed to any institution.
H. Jessen (*)
World Maritime University, Malmö, Sweden
e-mail: hj@wmu.se
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
P. K. Mukherjee et al. (eds.), Maritime Law in Motion, WMU Studies in Maritime
Affairs 8, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31749-2_14
289
in International Shipping: Closure of Five
Crimean Ports, the Sanctions Regime
in Respect of Ukraine/Russia and Related
Compliance Challenges
Henning Jessen
Abstract In 2014, Ukraine’s Ministry of Infrastructure issued a Directive entitled
“On Closure of Sea Ports”. This legal act has liquidated the administration of five
ports located in the territory of the “Autonomous Republic of Crimea” (as annexed
by Russia) and intends to cut those ports off from international shipping. In particular, calls to the closed ports can make owners and crews subject to legal proceedings and put vessels at risk of arrest. However, Ukraine does not exercise
effective political control over the closed Crimean ports and it can only enforce
the Directive (e.g. via detention) if a vessel calls at a closed port first and then at a
Ukrainian port.
It is unclear whether the closure has enough potential to generate any further legal
effects as any legal enforcement would also depend on a national Court’s view on
who is acting as the legitimate authority in Crimea. Further sanctions regimes as
applied both by the EU and the USA complicate the current legal situation. The
result has been characterised as “opaque”: Enforcement of those sanctions ultimately
depends on different perceptions of national States. A good example of practical
legal difficulties—arising partly also from the local “bottleneck” geography—is the
fact the vessels transiting the so-called “Kerch Strait” (off eastern Crimea) and
paying pilotage fees could technically violate the Ukraine sanctions regime although
intending to trade into the Sea of Azov which connects the Black Sea to both
Ukrainian and Russian ports.
In sum, the paper will try to highlight some of the current legal and practical
problems associated with the Ukraine sanctions regime as it is continuously intensified since mid-2014. The author will both apply a perspective from public international law as well as a more “compliance-oriented” view from the perspective of
The views expressed in this paper are personal and should not be attributed to any institution.
H. Jessen (*)
World Maritime University, Malmö, Sweden
e-mail: hj@wmu.se
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
P. K. Mukherjee et al. (eds.), Maritime Law in Motion, WMU Studies in Maritime
Affairs 8, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31749-2_14
289