Dorade Law regularly advises port and harbour authorities on the nature and extent of their existing statutory powers.
Dorade Law is able to advise on all aspects of drafting, obtaining and implementing harbour orders, including specific powers to make byelaws and to give general directions.
A harbour order may be used to impose, confer, substitute or amend a port or harbour authority’s duties and powers for the purposes of (amongst other things):-
- improving, maintaining or managing the harbour;
- marking or lighting the harbour, raising wrecks or otherwise making navigation safer; and
- regulating the activities of other individuals and groups in connection with the harbour and the marine/shoreside interface.
A harbour order might therefore be the appropriate means of updating or extending a port or harbour authority’s powers, in order to:-
- consolidate their statutory powers from a series of Acts or orders made over a period of many years into a single instrument;
- obtain or extend byelaw-making powers
- obtain or extend the power to give special and general directions and
change the harbour limits within which such powers might be exercised.
In order for a port or harbour authority to be empowered to give harbour directions under section 40A of the 1964 Act, it needs to be designated for that purpose by way of an order made by the appropriate Minister.
Dorade Law has particular expertise in drafting subordinate legislation for harbour authorities, including:
- byelaws, which are subject to confirmation by the relevant Minister;
- general directions (i.e. standing instructions to all vessels, or classes of vessels);
- harbour directions, which are similar to general directions but are made under different powers and subject to a non-statutory Code of Conduct; and
- directions to dangerous vessels prohibiting them from entering, or requiring them to leave, the harbour.
