This is the Romania chapter (Chapter 22) of ICLG – Shipping Law 2026, the 14th edition of the International Comparative Legal Guide published by Global Legal Group, London, which this year brings together one expert analysis chapter and 30 Q&A jurisdiction chapters. The chapter was authored by Ionut Tiberiu Mavrodin, founder of VesselArrested.com and of Law Office of Mavrodin Ionut Tiberiu, together with Iuliana Nicoleta Diaconu Samara, lawyer at the same firm. The firm is based in Constanta, Romania’s main Black Sea port, and its practice is built around ship arrest, maritime claims, casualty response and port-related disputes.
Following the ICLG comparative format, the chapter answers the questions that shipowners, charterers, cargo interests, P&I clubs and their lawyers most often raise when a dispute touches Romania. It covers the conventions governing collision, pollution, salvage, wreck removal and limitation of liability as applied in Romania, including the LLMC 1976/1996 and the Nairobi Wreck Removal Convention; cargo claims under the Hamburg Rules, to which Romania is a contracting state, with the applicable limits, time bars and the carrier’s remedies for misdeclared or dangerous cargo; passenger claims under the Athens regime and Regulation (EC) 392/2009; and, in particular detail, the arrest of ships in Romanian ports under the 1952 Brussels Arrest Convention and the Civil Procedure Code: the 20-day deadline for commencing merits proceedings, enforcement of the arrest through the harbour master, the “ready to sail” exception, bunker and sale-and-purchase claims, acceptable security (cash, bank guarantee, P&I letter of undertaking), counter-security, wrongful arrest and judicial sale. Further sections deal with the preservation of evidence, litigation before the Romanian courts and arbitration, the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitral awards, Romania’s new offshore wind framework under Law 121/2024, and recent developments such as FuelEU Maritime and the extension of the EU ETS to shipping.
Published by Global Legal Group Ltd, London, in ICLG – Shipping Law 2026 and reproduced here with permission. The chapter is a general guide to the subject matter and does not constitute legal advice; specific advice should be sought on the facts of any particular case.