UDK: 656.6

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30932/2500-1868-2026-58-2-17

Dmitry V. Gromovoy - Senior Advisor to the Maritime Logistics Department, JSC “Sakhalin-Morneftegaz-Shelf”, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia

Abstract. The current paper has presented a comprehensive analysis of the application of the International Safety Management Code (ISM Code) as a cornerstone of the modernization of legal regulation of navigation safety on inland water transport of the Russian Federation. The relevance of the study is in the persistently high proportion of human factors in the causes of maritime accidents, the aging of a significant portion of the fleet, the necessity to harmonize national legislation with the standards of the International Maritime Organization, and the transition to risk-based supervision models. The purpose of the current work was to identify legal conflicts and gaps arising in the process of implementing the ISM Code into the Russian legal system, and to formulate legal proposals aimed at improving the efficiency of Safety Management Systems (SMS) in maritime and inland water transport. There has been argued that the evolution of the ISM Code, complemented by the development of voluntary industry instruments from the OCIMF (TMSA, OVMSA), is catalyzing a shift in emphasis from a technology-centric regulatory model to a management-oriented paradigm focusing on security and safety, and the institutional independence of the designated person ashore (DPA). There have been proposed to make the regulatory specification of the abstract provisions of the ISM Code in national law and to strengthen practice-oriented oversight of the actual, rather than formal, performance of the SMS.

Keywords: International Safety Management Code; navigation safety; inland water transport; safety management system.

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Gromovoy D.V. The evolution of the application of the International Safety Management Code as a factor to modernize legal regulation of navigation safety on inland water transport of the Russian Federation // Transport law and security. 2026; (2(58)):198―222.