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Flagging Standards: Globalization and Environmental, Safety, and Labor Regulations at Sea

Author

Listed:
  • Elizabeth R. DeSombre

    (Wellesley College)

Abstract

Shipping is among the most globalized of industries. Ship owners can choose where to register their vessels, based on cost, convenience, and the international and domestic regulations that would govern their operation. This system of open registration, also known as flags of convenience (FOC), can encourage a competition in regulatory laxity among states that want to attract shipping revenues—a race to the regulatory bottom. In Flagging Standards, Elizabeth DeSombre examines the effect of globalization on environmental, safety, and labor standards in the shipping industry. She finds that the economic advantages of lowered standards can be offset by the collective action of international organizations, states, and non-governmental actors to exclude low-standard ships from the advantages of globalization. Open registries are pressured to raise their standards while traditional maritime states lower theirs somewhat when they create international or second registries. The result is a competition not for the regulatory bottom but for the middle ground. DeSombre examines the decisions made by states and ship owners that lead to this race to the middle and explores the effectiveness of strategies used by both state and nonstate actors aimed at raising regulatory standards, including port control, labor actions against FOC ships that fail to meet international labor standards, and trade restrictions against shipped goods that were not obtained within the requirements of international agreements. Globalization, DeSombre finds, may lead to a downward trend in regulatory standards but has also created many opportunities to raise these standards and does not necessarily signal a reduction of state control.

Suggested Citation

  • Elizabeth R. DeSombre, 2006. "Flagging Standards: Globalization and Environmental, Safety, and Labor Regulations at Sea," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262541904, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:mtp:titles:0262541904
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Shannon Guillot-Wright, 2021. "‘The company will fire you because you are too expensive’: a photo-ethnography of health care rights among Filipino migrant seafarers," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Yujuico, Emmanuel, 2014. "Demandeur pays: The EU and funding improvements in South Asian ship recycling practices," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 340-351.
    3. Liam Campling & Alejandro Colás, 2023. "Maritime Labour Regimes in the Neoliberal Era," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 66(1), pages 65-75, June.
    4. Bradford, Anu, 2015. "Exporting standards: The externalization of the EU's regulatory power via markets," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 158-173.
    5. Howell, Kerry E. & Bhattacharya, Syamantak, 2016. "Functional and territorial jurisdictions: Regulating a globalized shipping industry," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 92-100.
    6. William C. Terry, 2009. "Working on the Water: On Legal Space and Seafarer Protection in the Cruise Industry," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 85(4), pages 463-482, October.
    7. Syamantak Bhattacharya & Lijun Tang, 2013. "Fatigued for safety? Supply chain occupational health and safety initiatives in shipping," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 34(3), pages 383-399, August.
    8. Sergi Ros Chaos & Athanasios A. Pallis & Sergi Saurí Marchán & David Pino Roca & Agustín Sánchez-Arcilla Conejo, 2021. "Economies of scale in cruise shipping," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 23(4), pages 674-696, December.
    9. Linde K. J. van Bets & Machiel A. J. Lamers & Jan P. M. van Tatenhove, 2017. "Governing cruise tourism at Bonaire: a networks and flows approach," Mobilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(5), pages 778-793, September.
    10. Nektarios A. Michail & Konstantinos D. Melas & Kyriaki G. Louca, 2023. "Determinants of Ship Management Revenues: The Case of Cyprus," Economies, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-12, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    shipping industry; flags of convenience; globalization;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L52 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Industrial Policy; Sectoral Planning Methods
    • L87 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Postal and Delivery Services
    • J8 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

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