Gemi Geri Dönüşümünün Ulusal ve Uluslararası Düzenlemeler Çerçevesinde Türk Hukuku Bakımından Değerlendirilmesi

ABSTRACT

Turkey is ranked third among the countries with the highest number of ship recycling activities between 2019 and 2023. Also ship recycling facilities in Turkey constitute approximately 20% of the facilities on the European List of Ship Recycling Facilities (EU List). Therefore, the recycling activity itself appears as an area in need of legal regulations in terms of maritime law in Turkey. However, until today, apart from the Ship Breaking Regulation dated 2004 and the Regulation on the Incentive for the Construction of New Ships to Replace Turkish Flag Ships Broken for Scrap dated 2021, which are directly related to the issue, no comprehensive regulation that can respond to the legal problems arising in our country has been established, and the issue has been left to the ability of the practice to create solutions. The situation is no different in the international arena. This is because ships sold for recycling are subject to the Basel Convention, which is not mainly related to ships and which deals with the disposal of hazardous wastes in general. While this has been the practice so far, this situation will change with a new international convention to which Turkey became a party in 2019. With the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships entering into force on June 26, 2025, the implementation and all standards that the ship to be recycled and the recycling facility should have will be determined according to this new Convention. The first of the legal problems that will arise due to the fact that there are a number of ships excluded by the Convention will be which of the conventions should be applied and whether both conventions can be applied together. Another one of the main problems is the definition of “ship”, which is the subject matter of contracts for the sale of ships for recycling purposes, according to which regulation the definition of “ship” should be made. It should be noted that in each of the Hong Kong Convention, IMO Recycling Guidelines and the type ship recycling contracts developed by the Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO), “ship” is defined in different ways. These definitions are generally not compatible with the Turkish Commercial Code No. 6102. Therefore, it is necessary to address the issue in the context of contracts in terms of Turkish Law, to identify and resolve the deficiencies.…