1. Introduction
According to Norwegian law, it is forbidden to sail or tow a ship from Norway to another country for scrapping – unless official permission is given.
In 2021, the Court of Appeal(1) LG-2021-7308, an appeal to the Supreme Court was not allowed hearing, HR-2022-1147. sentenced a Norwegian shipowner – Mr. A(2) In the publically accessible report, a number of names are anonymised. In this article the shipowner is named Mr. A and his shipping company Company X. - to six months imprisonment, for having participated in a plan to send a LASH-carrier from Norway for scrapping on a beach in Pakistan without the required permission. The primary party was the owner of the LASH-carrier, a company domiciled in Singapore. This company was given a fine of NOK 7 million – which the company accepted.
This case – popularly called the Harrier-case because that was the name finally given to the LASH-carrier – is the theme of this article, to the extent covered by the Court of Appeal's decision. The facts of the case, as well as those of the pertinent regulations, are somewhat complicated; accordingly some simplifications are made.