How did the provisions of Part II of the Merchant Shipping Act 1988 and Part VII of the Merchant Shipping (Registration of Shipping Vessels) Regulations 1988 threaten the livelihoods of Factortame? On what grounds did they claim the provisions were contrary to European Economic Community law? Why was the prohibition they were seeking so urgent?

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How did the provisions of Part II of the Merchant Shipping Act 1988 and Part VII of the Merchant Shipping (Registration of Shipping Vessels) Regulations 1988 threaten the livelihoods of Factortame? On what grounds did they claim the provisions were contrary to European Economic Community law? Why was the prohibition they were seeking so urgent?

The provisions of Part II of the Merchant Shipping Act 1988 and Part VII of the Merchant Shipping (Registration of Shipping Vessels) Regulations 1988 threatened the livelihoods of the applicants as they set up a new structure for the registration of British vessels and barred the registration or the continuing registration of any fishing vessels to continue beyond 31 March 1989 that were not compliant with the Act. This act and its regulations were introduced due to Spain’s fishing vessels attempting to obtain a part of Britain’s fishing quota allocation. The act demanded that the vessel could only be eligible for registration if the vessel is British owned, controlled from within the UK, and that the vessel’s management is a UK person or company. None of the applicant companies complied with the conditions, as they were mostly citizens of Spain. The consequences that the applicants could potentially incur would be the inability to fish in UK waters, which could result in agricultural difficulties and food shortages for areas dependant on fisheries.

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The applicants wanted relief as they found that the provisions of Part II of the Merchant Shipping Act 1988 and Part VII of the Merchant Shipping (Registration of Shipping Vessels) Regulations 1988 could not apply to them as it is contrary to EEC law. It was already established that Community law was above national law in all matters. The act introduced a new system of registration of British fishing vessels and ruled that previously registered vessels could have their registrations suspended after a specified time. They claimed that the provisions were contrary to EEC law in a number of facets ...

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