Official blog of Swansea University's IISTL, where we keep you up to date with the latest maritime and commercial legal news.
Trip charterers tell shipowners what they can do with their ship.
In The Wehr Trave [2016] EWHC 583 (Comm) Sir Bernard Eder, sitting as a Judge of the High Court, has held that a trip charterer can legitimately order a further voyage after the conclusion of the primary voyage when that voyage is within the charter trading limits and will be completed within the specified duration of the charter.
Owners submitted that the charter was for a “trip”, ie a journey or voyage from one place or range of places to another. The charterers said that they were free to employ the vessel as they saw fit during the charter period, subject to any restrictions in the charter on the vessel’s employment. Sir Bernard Eder rejected this argument and concluded that under a time charter, including a trip time charter, the vessel would generally be under the directions and orders of the charterer as regards her employment for the charter period.
Professor Simon Baughen was appointed as Professor of Shipping Law in September 2013 (previously Reader at the University of Bristol Law School). Simon Baughen studied law at Oxford and practised in maritime law for several years before joining academia. His research interests lie mainly in the field of shipping law, but also include the law of trusts and the environmental law implications of the activities of multinational corporations in the developing world. Simon's book on Shipping Law, has run to seven editions (soon to be eight) and is already well-known to academics and students alike as by far the most learned and approachable work on the subject. Furthermore, he is now the author of the very well-established practitioner's work Summerskill on Laytime. He has an extensive list of publications to his name, including International Trade and the Protection of the Environment, and Human Rights and Corporate Wrongs - Closing the Governance Gap. He has also written and taught extensively on commercial law, trusts and environmental law. Simon is a member of the Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law, a University Research Centre within the School of Law, and he currently teaches at Swansea on the LLM in:Carriage of Goods by Sea, Land and Air; Charterparties Law and Practice; International Corporate Governance.
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