The Inland Rules replace the old Inland Rules, Western Rivers Rules, Great Lakes Rules, and their respective pilot rules and interpretive rules, and parts of the Motorboat Act of 1940. Many of the old navigation rules were originally enacted in the 1800s. Occasionally, provisions were added to cope with the increasing complexities of water transportation. Eventually, the navigation rules for United States inland waterways became such a confusing patchwork of requirements that in the 1960's several attempts were made to revise and simplify them. These attempts were not successful.

Following the signing of the Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1972, a new effort was made to unify and update the various inland navigation rules. This effort culminated in the enactment of the Inland Navigation Rules Act of 1980. This legislation sets out Rules 1 through 38 - the main body of the Rules. The five Annexes were published as regulations. It is important to note that with the exception of Annex V to the Inland Rules, the International and Inland Rules and Annexes are very similar in both content and format.

The effective date for the Inland Navigation rules was December 24, 1981, except for the Great Lakes where the effective date was March 1, 1983.

The International and Inland Navigation Rules have been combined in the Online NavRules pages. If you want a copy of just the Inland Rules, you can download it in various formats.