Explanatory note

This Order preserves the immunity from execution of ships and cargoes owned by certain States which would otherwise be lost by virtue of section 13(4) of the State Immunity Act 1978, and requires notice to be given to a consul of those States before a warrant of arrest is issued in an action in rem against a ship owned by that State or cargo on it. It gives effect to Articles 2 and 3 of the Protocol to the Treaty on Merchant Navigation between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics which was signed at London on 3rd April 1968, and to which Georgia and the Republic of Ukraine are now parties in addition to the Russian Federation.