5.2 Owner – charterer
When there is an alleged breach of the contractual terms – fundamental or of a minor character – the question of relevancy may depend upon the governing law. Here the parties have freedom to choose the law to be applied, and this is usually already decided in the charter party.
As mentioned above, de-registration may be at the owner’s initiative – despite the charterer’s protests. In a court trial on a later date, the decision may be that e.g. the cancellation was unwarranted. Here, the remedy is damages for the loss suffered by the charterer. In principle, there is also the possibility of demanding specific performance; since the registration of bare boat charter parties is now in principle accepted, the contra arguments indicated in 2.3 are no longer valid. However, specific performance which only occurs a long time after the declaration of cancelling and deletion from the register, appears practical only in very special circumstances.