Description

Over the last century or so, seaworthiness has come to be understood in two general but distinct ways: as the condition of a ship, and as the duty of a shipowner to ensure the ship is in such a condition. The first conception was developed predominantly, though not exclusively, by common law courts; the second arose primarily from marine insurance practices and international legal regimes, beginning with the Hague Rules, to regulate carriage of goods by sea. Many courts, as well as scholars, often assume that these two conceptions form a seamless, univocal concept of seaworthiness in admiralty and maritime law across jurisdictions. I will suggest that there are reasons to doubt this assumption and that there may be more distance between these conceptions than often thought, indeed, that these are two fundamentally different legal conceptions of seaworthiness. I examine the historical and practical reasons for each conception, and consider the prospects of making sense of each in a more general explanation of seaworthiness principles, as they feature in more specific familiar contexts, such as carriage of goods by sea, marine insurance, and liability for injury to seamen.

About The Speaker

Michael Sevel joined the University of Sydney Law School in 2012. Previously, he was Visiting Professor of Maritime Law at the University of Miami, Faculty Fellow at Tulane University, and Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute. He is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin (PhD 2010, MA 2010, JD 2008), Virginia Tech University (MA 2001), and the University of Southern Mississippi (BA 1999). Michael has published articles in the Journal of Maritime Law & Commerce, the University of Miami Law Review, and many other journals, and regularly teaches admiralty and maritime law in Australia and the United States. His current research interests are in the conceptual foundations and unity of admiralty and maritime law. Michael is an Academic Fellow of the Centre for Maritime Law.

Who Should Attend

Maritime lawyers, criminal lawyers, in-house counsel and legal officers in the shipping industry and affiliated with shipping. Government, Registry and Port representatives.