• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.708-716
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• 2019

After the Sewol ferry disaster, the maritime safety supervisor system was introduced to strengthen maritime safety control for coastal vessels. If any critical defect is found in vessel facilities during periodical or occasional guidance and supervision on a vessel, a maritime safety supervisor takes an administrative measure: detention of the vessel until it has been completely corrected. The detention order is one of the most powerful regulations exercised by a maritime safety supervisor. It would not be an overstatement to say that the guidance and supervision conducted by a maritime safety supervisor is very important for the safety of a vessel and protection of the maritime environment. However, the regulatory level of each Regional Office of Oceans and Fisheries toward vessels may vary with the enforcers, and an individual's intentional act or negligence might occur during the execution process. Detention of a coastal vessel by the Regional Office of Ocean and Fisheries can easily lead to delayed navigation, and a vessel owner may suffer economic loss from suspension of a charter party. Nevertheless, the Maritime Safety Act does not prescribe filing a petition for objection to the measure of detention order by a maritime safety supervisor. To overcome this problem, therefore, the objection procedure under the Maritime Safety Act has to be reformed to reclaim a right against an inappropriate detention order measure caused by an individual's intentional act or negligence through a formal objection.