Charting the trade-related and maritime legal waters of Mozambique requires a captain with in-depth local and international legislation knowledge. The Mozambican maritime legal framework is a combination of both domestic laws and international treaties and conventions. As with most of the country’s laws, it remains largely unchanged since Portuguese colonial rule ended in 1975.The country ranks 168th on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business 2020 index for contract enforcement, and 147th for the protection of minority investors.Cases are heard in a dedicated commercial court.It takes an average of 950 days to settle a contract dispute, at a cost of around 53% of the claim value, according to the index.The sub-Saharan averages are 655 days and a cost of 42% of the claim average.In South Africa the average is 600 days at 33% of the cost. Writing in the Lexology Law Review, authors Catarina Coimbra, João Afonso Fialho and José Miguel Oliveira state that most of the applicable international conventions governing shipping-related matters were initially ratified by Portugal when Mozambique was still a Portuguese overseas territory. “Although Mozambique has not specifically adhered to the same conventions since gaining independence, as required under the Vienna Convention on Succession of Treaties, it is commonly accepted that those conventions apply in light of Article 71 of the Mozambican Constitution (the version approved immediately after the country gained independence), which provided for the survival of any Portuguese laws and regulations in force at that time as long as they did not conflict with the word and spirit of the constitutional provisions,” the authors state.Relevant statues approved over the past 10 years – Law 4/96 of 4 January 1996 (the Law of the Sea) and Law 5/96 of 4 January 1996, established specialised maritime courts. Important legislation enacted in 2016 and 2017 includes: (1) a Special Registry for Foreign Vessels providing maritime cabotage (Decree 35/2016, of 31 August 2016); and (2) new regulations on Port Work (Decree 46/2016, of 31 October 2016); (3) the Regulations on Private Use of the National Maritime Space (Decree 21/2017, of 24 May 2017); and (4) the Regulations on the International Code of Protection of Vessels and Port Facilities (Decree 71/2017, of 31 December 2017), through which Mozambique has ratified the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS Code).Reforms to the regulatory environment are gathering steam. Recent statutes which have been enacted include Resolution 5/2018, of 18 September 2018, which transposes into domestic law the Maritime Labour Convention, new Regulations for Pilots and Ports Certification (Decree 24/2018, of 7 May 2018), and Regulations on the mandatory verification and declaration of containers' gross weight (Decree 58/2018, of 4 September 2018).
