This article shows the need for a maritime and river court in Colombia.
Since the development of humanity and since man sailed the seas and rivers, there was a need to regulate his incursion into other latitudes, either due to the development of trade or the warlike confrontation between cultures, a fact that is reflected in The present time due to the constant increase in trade, due to the development of technology, due to the globalization of the world, which makes Colombia enter into the improvement of its maritime institutions, because as is well known there is no jurisdiction in this field, existing only an administrative competence in charge of the national maritime authority that is executed by the Maritime Directorate, a dependency of the National Navy (Ministry of Defense).
Regarding the national fluvial competence, it is in charge of the Ministry of Transportation, through the General Directorate of Fluvial Transportation, regulated by Decree No. 3112 of 1997, and Law 1242 of August 05, 2008.
It is paradoxical that there is no unification in our country regarding autarkic transport, because although there are currently some river port captaincies, dependent on the Maritime Directorate, they do not have any competence with regard to the control of river vessels.
That is why this investigation will establish the priority criteria regarding the Necessity of the Maritime and Fluvial Court, within the Judicial Branch, since however there is a wide maritime and river coverage, it is operated under purely administrative aspects, and the disputes that arise within it are resolved in the area of the corresponding law, that is, if there are conflicts with seafarers, (employment contract, apprenticeship, etc.) they are settled in the ordinary labor jurisdiction, if there are commercial and / or civil conflicts (naval mortgage, freight transport, collisions or breakdowns), these are resolved by the ordinary civil jurisdiction,if a punishable act occurs (homicide or willful or negligent injuries in boats or port facilities) the jurisdiction falls on the criminal judges.
That is why this proposed aspect is novel, and that is why it is necessary to create the special Maritime and Fluvial jurisdiction, which is responsible for recognizing rights and obligations, and in some way leads Colombians to see the incipient need to expand this part special law, by the way widely developed in other latitudes.
