A ship registered in the Maritime Vessel Registry in Libya was arrested in the port of Burgas in Bulgaria and sold by a forced sale for the purpose of realizing a lien in favor of a creditor. After several more transactions, the ship was purchased by an Israeli entity who registered it in the Maritime Vessel Registry in Israel. The original Libyan owner of the ship sought to cancel the registration of the ship in Israeli.
The Maritime Court held that the registration in the Israeli Vessel Registry is void. The main rule established in the High Seas Convention of 1958 is that every ship must be registered in a certain country. The registration of a ship in any country, also known as the ship's "Flag State," determines the ship's "nationality" and grants the Flag State various powers related to the supervision of ships, recording of liens, recording of ownerships, and the like. The High Seas Convention states that each ship will have only one nationality, a ship cannot change its nationality except in the case of transfer of ownership and change of registration, and if a ship sails under two or more flags, and uses them as convenient, it will be deemed a stateless ship. The Israeli Maritime Law states that a vessel of which more than half is owned by the State or an Israeli citizen or an Israeli corporation is eligible for registration in Israel and that to the extent that a vessel subject to registration is registered in a foreign registry, its owner must obtain the cancellation of the foreign registration and the vessel will not be registered in Israel before cancellation of such foreign registration. . Here, the ship was registered in the Libyan Registry upon its purchase, which was never cancelled. Therefore, the registration of the ship in Israel means that the ship is registered with a double registration, and therefore is void.