Description

When Singapore became an independent country, the shipping industry looked very different than it does today. Ships were smaller; cargo was packaged and handled less efficiently; London was one of the world’s largest ports; and contracts of carriage were generally unimodal. Shortly thereafter, the industry started to change when international containerized shipments began in 1966. We now have 20,000-TEU ships; most liner carriage is of containerized goods; many traditional ports have become commercially irrelevant, while new ports have risen to take their places; and multimodal contracts have become the norm. Only the legal system has failed to keep pace. The last successful revision of the international legal regime governing the carriage of goods by sea — the Visby Protocol — was negotiated at the same time that Singapore was achieving its independence, and even that effort simply updated a few provisions of the 1924 Hague Rules. Although the Hamburg Rules are in force, they are rarely considered a success (and in any event they do not address the major changes in practice that have occurred since 1965). This lecture will review the current situation and consider the options for moving forward.

About The Speaker

Professor Michael Sturley holds the Fannie Coplin Regents Chair in Law at the School of Law, University of Texas at Austin.An expert in maritime law and U.S. Supreme Court practice, Professor Sturley clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell and practiced with Sullivan & Cromwell in New York City before joining the University of Texas in 1984. He writes primarily in the fields of maritime and commercial law, and he co-directs the University of Texas Supreme Court Clinic. He is the author of The Legislative History of the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act and the Travaux Préparatoires of the Hague Rules (Rothman, 1990); a co-author of The Rotterdam Rules (Sweet & Maxwell, 2010), Voyage Charters (Informa, 4th ed. 2014), and Admiralty and Maritime Law in the United States (Carolina Academic Press, 3d ed. 2015); and the author or coauthor of over a hundred articles and book chapters on maritime law.

Professor Sturley is currently a Visiting Professor at NUS Law and a Visiting Research Professor in the Centre for Maritime Law.

Who Should Attend

Lawyers, In-house counsel and legal officers working in the maritime industry, ship owners, banks and financial institutions, freight forwarders, traders, charterers, forwarders and those handling insurance claims arising in the maritime context.