WANG 

Feng, Alex

Dr Wang Feng was until December 2018 an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law at Dalian Maritime University (DMU). He was a Post-Doctoral Fellow in CML from July 2015 to April 2017. Prior to this, he obtained his PhD degree from University of Exeter in Marine Insurance Law, under the supervision of Professor Robert Merkin. He obtained his LLM degree in Maritime Law (with Merit) from the University of Southampton and took his first degree in Law (LLB (first class)) and in International Shipping Company Management (BBA) from DMU. He was the winner of the BILA (British Insurance Law Association) Article Prize in 2014 and won the first UK Maritime and Commercial Law Mooting Competition on behalf of University of Exeter.

Presentations

• “Cyber risk, marine insurance and the power of industry self-regulation”, CML Lunch Seminar, NUS Law, 29 September 2021
• “Maritime Custom and Usage after the Civil Code of the PRC”, CML Lunch Seminar, NUS Law, 10 February 2021
• “Blockchain Bills of Lading, Private Ordering and the Future of Governance” CML Lunch Seminar, NUS Law, 26 August 2020
• “Lex Maritima in the Medieval Europe: An Academic Fallacy” CML Lunch Seminar, NUS Law, 1 April 2020
• “Lex Maritima: A Proposed Research Programme” CML Lunch Seminar, NUS Law, 18 September 2019
• “A Case Study on the Application of International Conventions in Chinese Maritime Judgments” The Fifth Anglo-Chinese Maritime Law & Practice in Transition Conference, Southampton, UK, 6 June 2019

Selected Publications

Articles

• “Blockchain Bills of Lading and their Future Regulation” [2021] Lloyd’s Maritime & Commercial Law Quarterly 504-535
• “The warranty of seaworthiness and cyber risk of unmanned ships” (2020) Journal of Business Law 311-326
• “What types of expenses should be taken into account when calculating constructive total loss? (The MV Renos)” (2019) Journal of Business Law 504-510
• “The doctrine of subrogation in joint insurance – The Ocean Victory” (2017) 23 Journal of International Maritime Law 192-201
• “Illegality in Marine Insurance Law: A Chinese Perspective” (2016) 22 Journal of International Maritime Law 137-147
• “Knowledge of the assured in the context of the pre-contractual duty of disclosure: A new approach under English Law and Prospective reform in Chinese Law” (2015) 27 Insurance Law Journal 50-62
• “Illegal Performance of Marine Insurance Contracts” (2014) 127 British Insurance Law Association Journal 1-15

Books

•  Illegality in Marine Insurance Law (Informa Law from Routledge, 2016)

Book Chapters

• “Pre-contractual duties under Chinese insurance law” (with Yong Qiang Han) in Yong Qiang Han & Greg Pynt (eds), Carter v Boehm and Pre-Contractual Duties in Insurance Law (Hart Publishing, 2018) ch 8

Working Papers

• “The insured’s duty of disclosure under Chinese insurance law”, (2017) CML Working Paper Series, CML-WPS-1705

Reports

• “Report on the Queen Mary-Unidroit Institute of Transnational Commercial Law 11th Transnational Commercial Law Teachers’ Meeting” (2019) CML Reports, CML-R1902

• Marine Insurance Law
• Maritime Law
• Insurance Law
• Transnational Commercial Law

Research Project

The Lex Maritima: Theory and Practice

The foundation of the regulatory regime regarding maritime commercial activities was not laid down by positive law but instead by merchant customary rules (codified or uncodified customs and usages) and practices. The process of evolution can be viewed as being from the bottom-up rather than from the top-down. However, unlike positive law, this bottom-up evolution of the maritime regulatory regime has received very little scholarly analysis. Inspired by the arguments in favour of the lex mercatoria, some maritime scholars are now arguing for the existence of the lex maritima, in order to demonstrate the maritime industry’s unique self-regulation. However, due to the rather primitive state of research on this subject, the ‘lex maritima’ is misleading because it has never been properly defined. Contemporary research on this subject has been limited to its role as an instrument of interpretation used by courts or arbitrators to interpret the provisions of business contracts or to define professional responsibility in tort cases. However, the most significant aspect of the lex maritima as a private, rule-making instrument and a self-regulatory system has been neglected and, consequently, numerous crucial issues have been missed by contemporary maritime law scholars.

My research will remedy the lack of contemporary research on the lex maritima and will re-visit this long-neglected and misunderstood private, order-making system. By answering fundamental questions, such as the necessity for the lex maritima, its theoretical framework and its practical application, my research will endeavour to prove the existence of the lex maritima as a self-regulatory system.