Originally from Navigating Maritime Arbitration: The Experts Speak

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In most jurisdictions, shipbuilding disputes are commonly referred to maritime arbitration, even though shipbuilding contracts are not - or not only - maritime contracts. In the United States, “a contract to repair, or to insure a ship, is maritime, but a contract to build a ship is not.” Shipbuilding contracts are thus neither subject to admiralty jurisdiction, nor governed by the federal maritime law. Instead, shipbuilding contracts are assimilated to contracts for the sale of goods, subject to Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) in most states. In the United Kingdom, “a contract to build a ship, though a contract for the sale of goods, [has] some characteristics of a building contract.” Both sales law and construction law principles thus apply to shipbuilding contracts, which are nonetheless subject to admiralty jurisdiction under a British statute. In civil law countries, shipbuilding contracts are also an original category, because they resemble construction contracts, but borrow some characteristics from contracts for the sale of goods.