A proposed System of Hierarchical Scorecards to assess the implementation of maritime regulations

The successful implementation of a regulation in the modern complicated world is a major issue for states. A newly introduced regulation may cause conflicts of interest among various parties that are affected. A common conflict is that from one hand, the public demands the introduction of regulations that will increase safety, environmental and security standards while on the other hand industries are concerned about potential costs caused by new regulations. In this paper, the shipping industry, which is a typical example of an international industry, is chosen to carry out a cost and benefit analysis generated from the implementation of a newly introduced regulation. Consequently, a methodology is proposed capable of evaluating the implementation performance of a regulation in the shipping industry with respect to the costs and benefits that can be generated. For a simple and effective computation, a System of Hierarchical Scorecards (SHS) is developed to assist regulators in evaluating any proposed and/or existing regulations.