Pouria Koulivand - Port and Maritime Organization, Bandar Imam Khomeini, IRAN
Reza Ranjbar - Pkoulivand@bik.ir

The United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) provides every nation with rights and obligations with regard to ship registration and freedom of passage both over the high seas and through coastal waters of any other nation [1]. An Administration offering ship registration is referred to as the flag State . Flag States maintain the responsibilities and obligations imposed upon them by International Conventions for ships flying their flag. In a perfect world, acting of flag states, would ensure ships and shipping activities are fully compliant with all applicable requirements throughout the ship’s life. But, in fact this is not true and there must be another mechanism. International Conventions and UNCLOS both give powers to States to which ships travel (known as port States) to exercise some degree of control over ships in their waters (known as Port State Control (PSC)) for ensuring that they do not pose an unreasonable threat to the safety of the ship, its crew or the marine environment. PSC has assumed prominence within the shipping industry, driven by frequent failures of other responsible parties to fulfill their obligations [2].