Arrest of Ship

Ship arrest detains a vessel by court order to secure a maritime claim, giving the claimant security and often a jurisdictional foothold over an absent foreign owner. The two treaty regimes are the 1952 Arrest Convention, which ties arrest to an enumerated list of maritime claims, and the 1999 Arrest Convention, which broadens the list and tightens wrongful-arrest exposure. Many common-law states arrest the ship itself in an action in rem, distinct from the maritime lien that may travel with the vessel through a change of ownership.