Dubai has recently issued Law no. 11 of 2010 regulating marine transport in the emirate. The new law is indeed to be welcome, particularly where this should be seen only as the beginning of a process. It seems in fact that with this law Dubai is strengthening the Dubai Maritime City Authority (DMCA) and taking the lead role to ensure Federal Laws are enforced. It needs to be underlined that no other authorities are being wiped out, for the aim of the law is to establish a lead agency role between the different authorities to solve conflicts and avoid overlapping and to handle all maritime issues in an efficient manner.

This coordinating role between agencies has been welcomed by all the authorities (including DP World, Marine Police and Coast Guard) and of course also by the shipping industry, that will benefit from this streamline and quest for excellence. Now of course the interesting part (particularly from a legal point of view) will be to see how the regulations to implement the law will be created.

It is also of interest to note how the route taken by the law seems different from the typical European/American approach to the subject, where different competing authorities are not so well coordinated, thus radically reforming the subject towards a real best management practice.