Articles
THE MERCHANT CLAUSE-WHO IS “MERCHANT”?
Arnold Van Steenderen, Van Steenderen Mainport Lawyers, Rotterdam Under the terms of a Bill of Lading the shipper, the receiver, the consignee, the holder of the Bill of Lading, the owner of the cargo and, usually, anybody further defined as merchant in the Bill of...
MOL COMFORT: District Court of Hamburg rejects freight forwarders liability
Dr. Marco Remiorz, Dabelstein & Passehl, Germany The District Court of Hamburg – very experienced in shipping matters - has denied the liability of a freight forwarder for the loss of goods due to the sinking of the MOL Comfort. The defendant, a German freight...
TOWCON and Exclusive Choice of Forum – No Stay of Proceedings
Arnold Van Steenderen, Van Steenderen Mainport Lawyers, Rotterdam District Court of Rotterdam, 2nd July 2014 in Sovlot v. Bensam Maritime Oil & Gass On 20 November 2012 a Towage Agreement was concluded between Sovlot B.V. (the Netherlands) as Tug Owner and...
FORCE MAJEURE – SERVICE PROVIDERS’ LIABILITY
Alexey Remeslo, Senior Lawyer, Interlegal, Law firm General view on service providers’ liability in Ukraine Ukrainian Law does not contain specific provisions as for the service providers’ liability. Such is regulated by general...
Lien Rights under the CIFFA STCs
Gavin Magrath, Magrath’s International Legal Counsel, Toronto, Canada In Canada carriers of goods enjoy lien rights over cargoes under the common law, but these traditional rights, arising out of old English law, were developed long before the modern global logistics...
Shipment was not Dispatched – Exporter is Suing for Damages
Shmuel Grossman, Roy Gilad, Grossman, Cordova, Gilad & Co, Israel A company handling acquisition and marketing of metal waste contacted a client from England and agreed upon the exporting of an aluminium slag shipment to Spain. In order to export the shipment, the...
JULY 2014 LEGAL LOOKOUT ARTICLE
Steve Block, Foster Pepper PLLC, USA Holding Vessels Liable for their Owners’ Debt: a Couple Illustrative Cases The venerable maritime law concept that vessels are “folks” responsible and liable for their own debts is centuries old, at least in its earliest forms. It...
Investigation of Aircraft Accidents:
Arnold Van Steenderen, Van Steenderen Mainport Lawyers, Rotterdam Fears grow that the crash site of flight MH17 in Eastern Ukraine may have been compromised. This is a gross infringement of the internationally endorsed rules how a state where a crash site is situated...
Costs in international arbitration
Paul Bugden, Bugden + Co., London Introduction Arbitration as an elective dispute resolution forum competes with civil jurisdictions and other forms of binding alternative dispute resolution such as expert determination. Arbitration venues also inevitably compete with...
China’s new Enterprise Income Tax regulation and its impact on international transportation business
Ik Wei Chong, Clyde + Co, Shanghai As reported in Clyde & Co’s 2011 article titled ‘Chinese charterers deducting taxes from hire payments’ (click here to view), foreign vessel owners engaged in business with Chinese charterers have long faced China’s Enterprise...
CMR: Recent Jurisdictional Developments in Italy
Claudio Perrella Italy c.perrella@lslex.com The CMR (Convention on the Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods by Road of 19 May 1956) came into force in July 1961. It has been ratified by the vast majority of European states and has influenced the...
The Nairobi International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks
Arnold Van Steenderen, Van Steenderen Mainport Lawyers, Rotterdam The Nairobi International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks (“the Convention”) was adopted in Nairobi, Kenya in 2007. The Convention enters into force twelve months after ratification by ten...
Freight Forwarder Liable for Delay Due to Passivity
Aage Krogh, IUNO Denmark A freight forwarder had to pay full damages to a shipper because the carriage had been several months delayed and the freight forwarder had remained passive in relation to problems with his sub-contractor. According to the contract, six tanks...
Crimean Ports: Possible Solutions
Alexey Remeslo, Senior Lawyer, Interlegal, Law On March 27, 2014 the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on Ukraine, which called upon States, international organizations and other institutions not to accept any change in the status of the Crimea and Sevastopol,...
Supreme Court Dismisses CN Fuel Surcharge Appeal
Gavin Magrath, Magrath’s International Legal Counsel, Toronto, Canada The Supreme Court of Canada today dismissed Canadian National Railway‘s (CN) appeal (2014 SCC 40) from the decision of the Federal Court of Appeal in Canadian National Railway v Canadian...