Melis 

ÖZDEL

Dr Melis Özdel is the Specialism Convenor for Maritime Law at UCL Faculty of Laws, a former Director of the UCL Centre for Commercial Law, and the founder of the UCL Autonomous Shipping Project. Her research focuses on maritime and international trade law, international commercial arbitration, and conflict of laws and jurisdiction. A particular strand of her current work examines the legal and regulatory implications of autonomous shipping.

She is a member of the Comité Maritime International’s International Working Group on Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships, where she contributes to international discussions on the regulation of autonomous shipping. She has also represented the United Kingdom in the YES to Shipping initiative. A Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and a Supporting Member of the London Maritime Arbitrators Association, she accepts appointments as an arbitrator. She is a qualified solicitor in England and Wales (non-practising) and an advocate in Turkey.

Dr Özdel has published widely in academic journals. Her books include Commercial Maritime Law (editor and co-author, Hart Publishing, 2020), Bills of Lading Incorporating Charterparties (Hart Publishing, 2015), and EU Transport Law (co-author, Hart–Nomos–Beck, 2016). She is currently working on a second edition of Bills of Lading Incorporating Charterparties.

Presentations

• ‘Carriage of Goods by Autonomous Vessels’, the Comite Maritime International Conference, IWG Session on MASS, Gothenburg, Sweden (2024)
• ‘Mass and CMI, Colloquium on Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships and IMTLC, Dubrovnik, (2024)
• ‘CMI and MASS’, Greentech and Shipping Conference, organised by UCL-Swansea (2023)
• ‘40 Years on in Maritime Arbitration: Following in Lord Mustill’s Footsteps”, The 40 Years Institute of Maritime Law Conference, organised by the Institute of Maritime Law, Southampton University (2022)
• ‘Third Party Loss in Carriage of Goods by Sea’, 17th Annual International Colloquium, organised by the Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law, Swansea University (2022)
• “Autonomous Vessels and Deviation”, Autonomous Shipping: Liability and Contractual Issues, organised by UCL-Swansea (2021)

Selected Publications

• Bills of Lading Incorporating Charterparties (Hart Publishing 2015)
• Commercial Maritime Law (Hart Publishing 2020)
• ‘Reconceptualising the Nautical Fault Exception in the Fog of Emerging Technologies’, (2022) 51 Industrial LJ 672-695
• ‘Third Party Loss in Carriage of Goods by Sea’, in Barış Soyer (ed), Damages, Recoveries and Remedies in Shipping Law (Informa Law from Routledge 2023), ch 19
• ‘The CMI and MASS’, in Z Peplowska-Dabrowska and I Vio (eds), Seeking Regulatory Solutions for Unmanned Vessels (Informa Law from Routledge 2026)

• Carriage of Goods by Sea
• International Trade Law
• International Commercial Arbitration
• Conflict of laws and jurisdiction
• Product Liability
• AI

Research Project

Who Should Pay When AI Goes Wrong? Producer Liability for Autonomous Ships under English Law

The growing use of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) places AI systems in roles traditionally performed by masters and crew. Where an AI decision causes cargo damage, the carrier will ordinarily face the primary claim, but cargo interests and insurers may also seek recovery from the system’s producer. This research examines when a producer may owe a duty of care under English negligence law and how the courts should assess the system’s performance.

It argues that the distinctive difficulties posed by AI do not, in themselves, require a new product liability regime for MASS. Instead, questions concerning defects, evidential asymmetry, causation and remoteness can be addressed within the existing negligence framework, provided each is examined at the appropriate doctrinal stage. The research concludes by considering the consequences for insurance and contractual allocation of risk.