How does IMO implement legislation?
It doesn’t. IMO was established to adopt legislation. Governments are responsible for implementing it. When a Government accepts an IMO Convention it agrees to make it part of its own national law and to enforce it just like any other law. The problem is that some countries lack the expertise, experience and resources necessary to do this properly. Others perhaps put enforcement fairly low down their list of priorities. With 168 Governments as Members IMO has plenty of teeth but some of them don’t bite. The result is that serious casualty rates – probably the best way of seeing how effective Governments are at implementing legislation – vary enormously from flag to flag. The worst fleets have casualty rates that are a hundred times worse than those of the best. IMO is concerned about this problem and in 1992 set up a special Sub-Committee on Flag State Implementation to improve the performance of Governments. Another way of raising standards is through port State control. The most impo
