UN conventions and national laws
The documents are classified by date of publication
IMO is responsible for some 50 international treaties and
literally hundreds of other legal instruments, yet does not
(with one exception) have the power to ensure their
effective implementation. Enforcement depends on States
which, generally, have to incorporate IMO measures into
their domestic law. However, in the 1980s, many
Governments in the developing world were having
difficulty in this respect, due to a lack of appropriate legal
expertise at the national level. It was to address this
problem that IMLI – the IMO International Maritime Law
Institute – was established. Its main purpose was, and
remains, to train lawyers, principally from developing
countries, in private and public international maritime law.