15 Nations Sign Beijing Convention

The United Nations Convention on the International Effects of Judicial Sales of Ships (also known as the Beijing Convention) was signed by 15 nations and regions at a signing ceremony in Beijing on September 5, 2023.

Signatories were: China, Burkino Faso, Comoros, El Salvador, Grenada, Honduras, Kiribati, Liberia, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Switzerland and Syria. It will come into force when it is ratified by three state parties.  

The Convention, drafted by Comite Maritime International (CMI), provides a harmonised regime for giving international effect to judicial sales of ships. It also establishes a central repository to which notices and certificates of all judicial sales of ships under the Convention must be transmitted for publication. It streamlines processes for the deletion and registration of ships in the registries of Contracting Parties on the basis of a certificate of judicial sale issued in accordance with the Convention.

By providing greater certainty across borders that a judicial sale will confer clean title to a ship on the purchaser, and that the ship may not ordinarily be arrested after a judicial sale for a claim arising prior to the judicial sale, the Convention will benefit shipowners, potential purchasers, creditors, ship financiers and other stakeholders in the maritime industry.

The draft was concluded in June 2022 and adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in December.

Becoming a Party to the Convention will ensure that Singapore remains a progressive jurisdiction where key maritime-related legal activities are efficient and effective, in line with Singapore’s position as a leading maritime centre, said the Ministry of Law in a statement.