Legal issues and challenges in addressing the coronavirus outbreak on large cruise ships: A critical examination of port state measures

Abstract

International cruises have drawn worldwide attention since the outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19). This article first examines the legal issues, challenges and impact of the pandemic on large cruise ships, like the Diamond Princess, and then probes into corresponding pandemic preventive measures which port states employ. A State is obliged under the International Health Regulations 2005 (IHR) to grant foreign cruise ships free pratique , but there is an exception when public health emergencies of international concern occur. Therefore, this article argues that a port state is not obliged to allow foreign cruise ships to dock at its port at the cost of its domestic public health safety. Regarding the Diamond Princess , the Japanese government has undertaken pandemic preventive measures upon passengers on board the ship and complied with its domestic laws, including the Japanese Quarantine Act . This article further evaluates whether a port state's pandemic preventive measures concerning cruise ships are appropriate from the perspective of law. More importantly, it is necessary to consider the characteristics and specialities of international cruise ships to improve future pandemic preventive measures against large passenger ships and cruise passengers.

The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Human Rights

“…37 Research conducted during the pandemic showed that "29% of working women with young children found it difficult to concentrate on their work due to family responsibilities as compared to 16% of working men in the same situation". 38 During the epidemic, women are more likely to cut back on their work hours or stop working altogether to take care of their children, 39 reinforcing traditional gender roles and exacerbating previous imbalances.…”

“…38 Eurofound (2020), Women and the labour market: has COVID rolled back recent gains, available at https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/publications/policy -brief/2020/women-and-labour-market-equality-has-covid-19-rolled-back-recen t-gains. 39 Alon T., Doepke, M., Olmstead-Rumsey, J., Tertilt, M. ( 2020), 'This Time It's Different: The Role of Women's Employment in a Pandemic Recession', IZA Institute of Labour Economics, Discussion Paper Series No 13562, p. 4, available at https://covid-19.iza.org/publications/dp13562/. 40 European Institute for Gender Equality (2020), Gender Equality Index 2020: Digitalisation and the future of work, available at https://eige.europa.eu/public ations/gender-equality-index-2020-digitalisation-and-future-work.…”

Optimal subsidy policies of the Chinese cruise market under the impact of COVID-19

“… Ito et al (2020) investigated the relationship between cruise ship size and the number of COVID-19 confirmations. Sun and Zhao (2022) examined disease preventive measures and isolation measures on board against COVID-19 by the port States. Pan et al (2021) investigated the attitudes of 759 consumers towards the cruise industry during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the results showed that cruise companies should increase investment in epidemic prevention and advertising to restore consumer trust and achieve market recovery.…”

“…In response to the design flaws revealed by the Diamond Princess, such as the space layout and air conditioning system, the cruise line invested much money to improve the safety and epidemic prevention of the cruise ship ( Sun and Zhao, 2022 ), including (1) Each stateroom, crew room, and public areas are equipped with 100% fresh air circulation system. (2) Medical center with isolation wards.…”

Cruise tourism in the context of COVID-19: Dilemmas and solutions

“…From these three stages, we can determine that effective management of international public health can be accomplished if the governance objectives are clearly defined, there exists active cooperation among stakeholders, the existing legal basis is sufficient and concrete, and the governance tools are specific and practical.The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented health and social scenario ( Kane et al, 2021 ; Alfonso et al, 2021 ; Armenio et al, 2021 ; Fernández-González et al, 2022 ) and altered humans' everyday lives in all aspects, and of course, the tourism cruise industry is no exception. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, confirmed cases on international cruise ships, such as “Diamond Princess”, “Costa Serena”, “Westerdam” and “Grand Princess”, have focused the international community's attention on the dangers of cruise confinement ( Sun and Zhao, 2022 ). Despite past norovirus outbreaks on cruise ships and despite the severity of the situation derived from COVID-19, countries have not reached a consensus on the prevention, control, and management of this kind of public health situation in particular environments, such as cruise ships.…”