Maritime Code.

The Maritime Code regulates the administrative and private legal relations which arise between legal entities in the field of legal relations connected with maritime matters. This Code shall be applied to all ships that are located in waters under the jurisdiction of Latvia, all Latvian ships, as well as other legal entities which are associated with Latvian ships or navigation in Latvian waters, unless it is otherwise provided for in this Code. This Code does not apply to warships and the personnel thereof unless specified otherwise by this Code or other laws and regulations. The Code further provides for the nationality of ships; ship register; establishment of rights associated with a ship; deletion from the ship register and prescriptive periods; registration of ships under construction in the ship register and deletion therefrom; installations for the extraction of seabed resources; ship mortgages; maritime liens; preferential rights of cargo; special provisions in relation to encumbrances on ships; arrest of ships as means of securing maritime claims; insurance of ship for maritime claims; general provisions regarding liability; collisions; limitations of liability; limitation of liability fund; liability for pollution caused by oil; limitation of liability procedure; carriage of cargo and passengers; salvage and properties associated with salvage; wrecks; and seafarers. Upon a contract to buy or to build a ship being entered into, the person acquiring the ship or the builder may reserve the name of the ship by submitting a relevant submission to the Maritime Administration of Latvia. The name of the ship may also be reserved in the Ship Register in other cases upon request from an interested person for a time period of up to one year. The name that has been reserved in the Ship Register as the name of the ship shall have the same protection under law as the name of the ship that has already been registered in the Ship Register.