Maritime and Admiralty

On May 13, 2013, the U.S. Coast Guard published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would modify existing crane regulation standards for mobile offshore drilling units (MODUs), offshore supply vessels and floating outer continental shelf facilities. Existing regulations at 46 C.F.R. Part I-A are based on 1972 American Petroleum Institute (API) standards. The new regulation would update the standard to the current API standards for operations and maintenance immediately upon effecti . . .

Charlie Papavizas

For a vessel to qualify to operate in the U.S. coastwise trade (Jones Act) it must be built in the United States which means that all major components of its hull and superstructure must be fabricated in the United States and the vessel must be assembled entirely in the United States. On April 25, 2013, the U.S. Coast Guard issued a ruling relating to the construction of multi-purpose, self-propelled work platforms designed to accomplish a number of shallow water tasks such as dredging, . . .

Charlie Papavizas

On April 9, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a 2-1 ruling overturning a decision of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana and determining that the Department of Interior was not in civil contempt of an injunction barring it from enforcing a moratorium on oil and gas drilling operations on the Outer Continental Shelf ("OCS") following the Deepwater Horizon incident. Despite the injunction, the government had issued a second mora . . .

Larry Kiern ; Jarrod A. Rainey

On April 2, 2013, the Federal Maritime Commission issued a press release stating that President Obama has designated Commissioner Mario Cordero as Chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission. Former Chairman Richard A. Lidinsky, Jr. indicates in the press release that he will remain on the Commission.  Although Commissioner Lidinsky's appointed term expired June 30, 2012, a Commissioner may continue to serve until a successor is appointed and qua . . .

Bryant Gardner ; Larry Kiern; Gerald A. Morrissey III

On March 27, 2013, in Wilmina Shipping AS v. U.S. Dept' of Homeland Security, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia upheld the Coast Guard's broad authority to revoke a tank vessel's Certificate of Compliance, a certificate needed by tank vessels to enter ports in the U.S. Although the court went on to reject the Coast Guard's assertion that it has authority to ban a ship for a term of years, it also held that the Coast Guard had broad discretion to set conditions . . .

Brooke F. Shapiro ; Allen Black