Ustimenko V.A., Doctor of Law, Zablodska I.V., Doctor of Economics, Romanovska L.A., Candidate of Legal Sciences
The approach port of the seaport is a port hydraulic structure designed to ensure the approach of vessels to the harbors of the seaport. This purpose reflects the required mode of operation of the Access Channel of the seaport as a hydraulic structure in accordance with the Rules of operation of hydraulic structures, which should be taken into account when determining the obligation of the respective shipowners to pay the channel fee. The need to charge and pay the canal fee for the crossing of the approach canal is due to the feasibility study of the dimensions of the canals themselves, which take into account the number of vessels whose draft allows or does not allow to move the required part of the water without additional depths. In the case when the draft of the vessel allows to move the necessary part of the water area without additional provision of depths, the obligation to pay the channel fee for crossing the approach channel does not arise. The processes of passage and crossing of the canal by vessels are fundamentally different ways of movement of vessels, the features of such movement are defined in a number of legislative acts of Ukraine. The intersection of the approach channel is the fact of passing the approach channel, not the fact of its use.