Academic staff teaching at Swansea LLM degrees are at the forefront of scholarship in their particular areas of expertise, which they combine with skilled and innovative teaching.
They are also members of the Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law (IISTL), an internationally renowned research centre, which promotes research and teaching of the highest standard in the fields of international shipping and trade law.
The IISTL has a global reputation and its members are often invited to speak at international conferences to disseminate the results of their research. Like any other year, members of the Postgraduate Legal Studies Department with the commencement of the academic year of 2014-15 have travelled around the world delivering academic papers in prominent international events on shipping, transport and trade law.
On 17 September 2014, Dr Theodora Nikaki delivered a keynote address at the InterTran Research Project Closing Conference in Helsinki entitled “European Intermodal Sustainable Transport – Quo Vadis?”. The InterTran project is an interdisciplinary research project focusing on the expanding new, European transport policy from a legal and logistical point of view. It is a research project financed by the Finnish Academy and The Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law jointly. Dr Nikaki’s paper, titled “The Future of Multimodal Transport: Is the Uniform Liability System the Way Forward?”, tested the feasibility of the uniform liability system as basis of a new multimodal regime. The paper also examined the difficulties in implementing a new multimodal transport regime arising out of the existing international transport conventions, a theme which also provoked a lively debate among the participants.
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On 11 September, Professor Andrew Tettenborn addressed the Eighth European Colloquium on Maritime Law Research, hosted by the Rotterdam Institute for Shipping & Transport Law (RISTL). The European Maritime Colloquia are a series of biannual conferences organized by leading maritime law centers in Europe, in collaboration with the Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law (University of Oslo, Norway). The Eighth Colloquium’s theme was “Common core, PECL and DCFR: Could they change shipping law?” and Professor Tettenborn delivered a paper on “”How far the imposition of a serious good faith obligation (an important part of both PECL and DCFR) might impact on the black-and-white world of shipping contracts.” His thought-provocative paper has sparked a debate over the concept of good faith in various jurisdictions and its impact on shipping law.
On 16 October, Professor Simon Baughen gave a paper at a conference at the University of Marmara on “Marine Pollution Liabilities in EU waters. New Developments” which considered the impact on oil rig operators of art. 38 of the 2013 Offshore Oil and Gas Operations Directive, art 38, extends the geographical limits of water pollution to the EEZ of Member States. The paper also considered the extent to which the CLC system of civil liability for oil pollution from ships has been undermined by civil claims attached to criminal proceedings arising out of the ‘Erika’ spill, in France, and the ‘Prestige’ spill, in Spain.
Most recently (7-8 November), Professor Bariş Soyer, the Director of the IISTL, attended the International Conference on “Hong Kong Maritime Law Forum” organised by the Hong Kong Centre for Maritime and Transportation Law (City University of Hong Kong) and delivered a paper discussing why the Athens Convention 2002 will be a good model for Asian countries to follow to regulate compensation claims for passengers carried by sea. Professor Soyer has written on this subject extensively and is currently working on a piece with Dr Leloudas, another IISTL member, evaluating how air law conventions can be utilised to fill the gaps that arise in the context of the Athens Convention.
On 8 November Professor Simon Baughen co-organised a conference at the University of Bristol on “Corporate Accountability and Access to remedies for Corporate Wrongs”, the third in a series of conferences organised by the University of Sheffield with an ESRC grant. The series will conclude in 2017 with a submission to the UN Human Rights Council based on findings from the conference series. Professor Baughen gave a paper “Life after Kiobel. The future for human rights litigations against MNCs in the US.” on the future of human rights litigation in the US District Courts under the Alien Tort Statute following the Supreme Court’s decision on the territorial reach of the statute in April 2013 in Kiobel.
Similarly, with the commencement of the new academic year, IISTL members spread around the world presenting academic papers in various international events addressing shipping, transport, trade and marine and environmental law.
Professor Bariş Soyer, the Director of the IISTL, was invited to present a paper at the 8th International Conference of Maritime Law organised by the Piraeus Bar Association held at the Congress Hall of the Piraeus Port Authority (10-12 October 2013). This event was the latest in a prestigious series, first established 22 years ago, which provides a forum for maritime academics, practitioners, public officers and experts from all over the world to discuss timely issues of theoretical and practical interest. The theme of this year’s event, which was a fitting tribute to the late Emeritus Professor Anthony M. Antapassis (Athens University), to whom the conference was dedicated, was ‘Shipping in Periods of Distress. Professor Soyer’s paper, entitled ‘Early Redelivery of Chartered Vessels – Remedies Available for Shipowners’ was well received and prompted an interesting debate on the subject. The early redelivery of chartered vessels poses significant problems for shipowners. As Professor Soyer outlined, the current legal protection accorded to shipowners under English law is far from satisfactory. In his paper, Professor Soyer elaborated how shipowners could best protect themselves by incorporating contractual provisions into their agreements with charterers.
In May 2014, Professor Soyer was invited by the Italian School of Judiciary (Scuola Superiore Della Magistratura) to speak at their Conference held at Genova on international maritime law. This event, which was organised in collaboration with the Association of Bar of Genoa, attracted delegates from the Italian judiciary and legal practice. Professor Soyer in his paper evaluated the position of standard cargo insurance on offer in international insurance markets highlighting their limitations especially in the context of multimodal transport.
On 11-14 October Dr Richard Caddell participated at the Sixth Symposium on Polar Law, an annual event dedicated to the regulation of the Arctic and Antarctic regions and which has rapidly established itself as the leading scholarly forum for debating these issues. The Polar Regions – especially the Arctic – have rapidly become a core area of international focus, raising controversial questions over their future governance and the exploitation of marine resources. Dr Caddell presented a paper entitled “Regulating the Whale Wars: Freedom of Protest, Navigational Safety and the Law of the Sea in the Polar Regions” in which he examined the scope for environmental activism at sea and its conflict with other legitimate uses of ocean space. The paper was especially timely given the recent arrest of 30 Greenpeace activists for boarding the Prirazlomnaya oil platform in Russian Arctic waters, a situation that Dr Caddell examined alongside significant legal developments from a variety of other jurisdictions, which also provoked a lively debate among the participants.
Dr Caddell has also been invited to join an expert group reviewing the future protection of cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) under European Law, with a view towards reforming the current unsatisfactory and contentious legal position of these species. Moreover, in late October he presented a paper entitled “Wilderness Protection in Estonia” at a workshop of invited participants at the University of Tilburg, the Netherlands. Here Dr Caddell will present research that will form part of a chapter contribution to the first major book examining European wilderness law, edited by Professor Kees Bastmeijer, scheduled for publication by Cambridge University Press in 2014.
Dr. Leloudas was invited at the 5th Annual McGill Conference on International Aviation Liability & Insurance which was held at Montreal, Canada (25-26 October 2013). The Conference is one of the main international events in the field of carriage of passengers by air and attracts aviation legal professionals from all over the world. Dr. Leloudas was on the panel that discussed the erosion of the principle of exclusivity under the Warsaw and the Montreal Conventions, a principle which creates a constant stream of case law worldwide with often mixed results. Dr. Leloudas was one of the very few academics from outside McGill who was invited to speak at the Conference.
Furthermore, Dr George Leloudas was invited to present a paper to the LL.M (Air Law) students of the Institute of Air & Space Law of McGill University in Canada (24 October 2013). The paper was entitled “Multimodal Transport under the Montreal and the Warsaw Convention: a velvet revolution?” in which he examines the boundaries of application of the air law conventions in a multimodal context. This issue is in high academic and practical demand as result of conflicting case law developing in continental, English and US courts, with Dr. Leloudas providing his interpretation of the current judicial developments and his prediction as to where the future lies. The presentation gave the impetus for a heated discussion among the students, the academics of the Institute and the speaker on the (dis)uniformity of this area of law and the commercial reasons behind the latest judicial developments.
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His most recent prizewinning monograph, published last year, gives a comprehensive and coherent legal analysis of the impact of fraud on the position of various parties to a marine insurance contract. At the time of publication it was seen as a winner. In the foreword, Sir Bernard Rix (formerly a Lord Justice of Appeal) stated: “Professor Soyer has written a book on an important and fascinating theme which not only states the law in a clear and concise way, but also analyses it critically, insightfully and helpfully. I am confident that it will be used profitably by a wide range of readers.”
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