New regime for maritime claims

Date: 2nd March, 2010

The following is the opening address delivered by Dr Ann Fenech, at the public seminar on the Rotterdam Rules which was also addressed by Prof Charles Debattista. The seminar was held on the 3rd of February at the Chamber of Commerce in Valletta, and was organised by the Malta Maritime Law Association.

Opening address – Dr. Ann Fenech President Malta Maritime Law Association.

Honourable Justices, Honourable Magistrates, Ladies and Gentlemen –

On behalf of the Malta Maritime Law Association it is my very great pleasure to welcome you this afternoon to our seminar on the ROTTERDAM RULES.

I have to say how delighted we are with the response and attendance. Last year we organised a seminar together with the International Salvage Union on Salvage, we had about 100 participants and we thought that was very good – for today's seminar we have over 170 attendees – that is excellent.

This just shows that Malta has a thriving shipping / legal community eager to learn more about the latest developments in Maritime Law because this effects us directly as the versatile maritime nation that we are today and this is one of the primary roles as I see it, of the MMLA, to bring quality presentations to as wide a shipping / legal audience as possible.

Today's seminar is on the Rotterdam Rules. As most of you know the two main international regimes governing the carriage of goods by sea are the Hague and the Hague Visby Rules. Malta is not a signatory to either of these two conventions although the Hague rules are considered to be part of the law of Malta because they were incorporated into our law by virtue of the Carriage of Goods By Sea Act 1954. That said, our courts consistently apply the Hague Visby Rules when they are seized of a matter relating to a bill of lading incorporating the Hague Visby Rules. The Hague and the Hague Visby Rules have been here a very long time and for many, many years it has been considered that time was ripe for a new convention. We subsequently saw the emergence of the Hamburg Rules, however these were never really successful. On September 23rd last year, in Rotterdam, the UNCITRAL promoted - United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods, wholly or partly by Sea was open for Signature in Rotterdam. This convention will come into force 12 months after the ratification of the convention by 20 states. To date I believe that 23 member states have signed up – not ratified – however that is certainly a good sign and observers note that this indicates that the convention will probably be in force during 2011. A number of very important countries have signed up including the USA, France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Poland, Holland naturally, Denmark, Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Norway, Senegal and Switzerland.

I attended the signing ceremony of the Rotterdam Rules last September on behalf of the Malta Maritime Law Association, where I met up with Prof. Charles Debattista my friend and colleague, and the idea of him coming to Malta to give a lecture about the rules was born right there and then. Charles very kindly immediately accepted our invitation to come to Malta and share with us his expert knowledge on the subject.

It is therefore my very great pleasure to introduce our guest speaker tonight Professor Charles Debattista who will be speaking to us about – The Rotterdam Rules, A new international regime for Cargo Claims.

Charles Debattista is an Arbitrator based at Stone Chambers, Grays Inn, London, a set of barristers' chambers specialising in international trade and shipping law. He is also Professor of Law at the University of Southampton where he was twice Director of that University's Institute of Maritime Law. He has written extensively in the fields of international trade and shipping law. His latest works are Bills of Lading in International Trade and The Rotterdam Rules – a Practical Annotation. He teaches on the LL.M. and Ph.D programmes in International Trade Law, the Carriage of Goods by Sea ad the Law of Arbitration at the University of Southampton. He has had visiting appointments in a number of foreign universities over the years.

Ladies and Gentlemen I give you Prof. Charles Debattista.