Description

Shipping law is a wonderful subject. It is as old as the hills – or seas. It is subject to all the vicissitudes of the elements, of human life, and international events. How does principle, or pragmatism, swim in such waters? Are they opposed, or do they work in tandem? Can one predict when, or how, each will operate as decisive? How might one formulate a reasoned response to the demands of each? How might one predict the answer to such demands? How might one teach the rationality of such issues? The lecture will seek to explore such questions by reference to some shipping jurisprudence of the last quarter to half century. Such jurisprudence will cover, if there is time, significant areas of dispute, such as sovereign immunity, illegality, frustration, force majeure, demurrage, repudiation, termination, damages, and contract interpretation.

About the Speaker

Sir Bernard retired in 2013 as a Lord Justice of Appeal with 20 years’ experience in the Commercial Court and the Court of Appeal. Since 2013 he has accepted appointments as an arbitrator and mediator in a wide variety of settings, including oil and gas, shipping, insurance, sale of goods, and share purchase transactions. Sir Bernard has acted as an expert witness, mock arbitrator and special master in the US federal courts. He has experience of arbitrations under the rules of, amongst others, the LCIA, ICC, SIAC, HKIAC, JCAA and LMAA as well as ad-hoc. He is an International Judge of the Singapore International Commercial Court and a member of the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal. He is also Professor of International Commercial Law at The Centre of Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary, University of London. As a barrister, Sir Bernard practised in commercial chambers at 3 Essex Court (now Twenty Essex). He specialised in international commercial and arbitral disputes (as both barrister and arbitrator) and also appeared in the courts of Singapore and Hong Kong. He was Chairman of the Commercial Bar Association in 1992–1993.

In 1993 Sir Bernard was appointed to the High Court and sat predominantly in the Commercial Court, of which he was judge in charge from 1998 to 1999. In that period, he was responsible for introducing to the Commercial Court the Woolf Reforms to civil procedure law (the Civil Procedure Rules) and redrafting the Commercial Court’s Guide and Practice Directions. In 2000 Sir Bernard was appointed to the Court of Appeal where he delivered a wide range of judgments on arbitration, aviation, banking, insurance and reinsurance, private and public international law, oil and gas, sale of goods and shipping disputes.