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F6The county court does not have jurisdiction to determine any claim or question certified by the Secretary of State to be a claim or question which, under the Rhine Navigation Convention, falls to be determined in accordance with the provisions of that Convention; and any proceedings to enforce such a claim which are commenced in F5the county court shall be set aside.

In subsection (9) “the Rhine Navigation Convention” means the Convention of the 7th October 1868 as revised by any subsequent Convention.

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In subsection (2)—

• “inland waters” includes any part of the sea adjacent to the coast of the United Kingdom certified by the Secretary of State to be waters falling by international law to be treated as within the territorial sovereignty of Her Majesty apart from the operation of that law in relation to territorial waters; and

• “port” means any port, harbour, river, estuary, haven, dock, canal or other place so long as a person or body of persons is empowered by or under an Act to make charges in respect of ships entering it or using the facilities in it, and “limits of a port” means the limits thereof as fixed by or under the Act in question or, as the case may be, by the relevant charter or custom;

• “charges” means any charges with the exception of light dues, local light dues and any other charges in respect of lighthouses, buoys or beacons and of charges in respect of pilotage.

F11The county court may not entertain an action in personam to enforce a claim to which this section applies until any proceedings previously brought by the plaintiff in any court outside England and Wales against the same defendant in respect of the same incident or series of incidents have been discontinued or otherwise come to an end.

Subsections (1) to (4) shall apply to counterclaims (except counterclaims in proceedings arising out of the same incident or series of incidents) as they apply to actions in personam, but as if the references to the plaintiff and the defendant were respectively references to the plaintiff on the counterclaim and the defendant to the counterclaim.

Subsections (1) to (5) shall not apply to any action or counterclaim if the defendant submits or has agreed to submit to the jurisdiction of the court.

Nothing in this section shall prevent an action or counterclaim which is brought in accordance with the provisions of this section in F9the county court being transferred, in accordance with the enactments in that behalf, to some other court F12....

This section applies F13generally in relation to the jurisdiction of the county court (and not only in relation to any jurisdiction that may be conferred on the county court in relation to Admiralty proceedings).

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Nothing in section 31 or any provisions made for the purpose of, or in connection with, conferring jurisdiction on the county court in relation to Admiralty proceedings authorises proceedings in rem in respect of any claim against the Crown, or the arrest, detention or sale of any of Her Majesty’s ships or Her Majesty’s aircraft, or of any cargo or other property belonging to the Crown.

In subsection (2) “Her Majesty’s ships” and “Her Majesty’s aircraft” have the meanings given by section 38(2) of the M1Crown Proceedings Act 1947.