The purpose of this book is to introduce the reader to the legal concepts surrounding the registration of ships, to provide an objective assessment of the issues arising from the use of flags of convenience or open registers and to examine in detail the practice and procedure in a number of key jurisdictions. As was the case in the first edition, the individual national chapters have been set out, as far as possible, in a common format to enable the busy practitioner to gain quick access to the relevant material and to compare easily the requirements of one jurisdiction with another.

The latest edition has been expanded to include chapters devoted to Belize, the Norwegian International Register (NIS) and Singapore. Most national chapters now include an additional section dealing with yachts where the flag State has adopted codes of practice for commercial yachts or other measures to attract commercial or private yachts to their flag.

Important developments have taken place in many jurisdictions. Cyprus and Malta joined the European Union in 2004 and, as a result, the ownership criteria in these formerly open registry jurisdictions were modified in order to comply with EU law. Ironically, the change from open register to national register has broadened rather than narrowed the categories of owners qualified to be owners of registered vessels in those jurisdictions. Two Red Ensign registers, the Cayman Islands and the Isle of Man, now have more relaxed ownership criteria, allowing companies in many foreign countries to become registered owners under their respective flags. The British Virgin Islands became a Category 1 British Register in June 2008 and although it was not possible to include a chapter to the BVI in this edition, the authors hope to do so in the future.