News from the CMI:– The 2014 Hamburg Conference, with Berlin Add-on – Report of the Secretary-General

– Minutes of the Executive Council meeting held on 15 June 2014 from 09h00 to 16h30at the Atlantic Hotel, Hamburg, Germany

– President’s report to the CMI Assembly

– Minutes of the Assembly Meeting held on 17 June 2014 at 14h30 at the AtlanticHotel, Hamburg, Germany

– Minutes of the Executive Council meeting held on 17 June from 17h00 to 17h45 atthe Atlantic Hotel, Hamburg, Germany

News from Intergovernmental and International Organizations:– News from IMO

Report on the IMO Legal Committee, 101st Session, April 28th to May 2nd, 2014, by Patrick Griggs

– News from IOPC FundsReport on the May 2014 Sessions of the IOPC Funds’ Governing Bodies, by Rosalie Balkin

ISSN 0778-9882

CMI NEWS LETTERVigilandum est semper; multae insidiae sunt bonis.

COMITE MARITIME INTERNATIONAL

NO. 1-2 - JANuARy / AuGuST 2014

NEWS FROM THE CMITHE 2014 HAMBURG CONFERENCE, WITH BERLIN ADD-ON

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

The beautiful and historic Hanseatic port city ofHamburg and the warmth of its welcome, combinedwith an interesting and varied work and socialprogramme, drew 292 delegates and close on 40accompanying persons to the 2014 CMI Conference,co-hosted by the German Maritime Law Association(the DVIS).

After a busy working weekend for our ISCs andEXCO, a boat trip across the Alster Lake tookdelegates to the Anglo-German Club for a gardenwelcome reception under clear summer skies. CMIPresident Stuart Hetherington and DVIS jointPresident Klaus Ramming recalled that we weremeeting 40 years after the last CMI conference washeld in Hamburg in 1974 – then also at the AtlanticKempinski Hotel, a maritime museum in its own

right. Present at the reception were Drs Herber andKröger, who attended the 1974 conference. We werehonoured to have CMI retired EXCO Hamburgstalwart Dr Thomas Remé with us also. And weenjoyed an interesting welcome address from Mr RalfNagel, the CEO of the German Shipowners’Association.

When the conference opened the next morning, theCMI President and DVIS joint president DieterSchwampe’s welcomes were followed by keynotespeeches by Hubert Weis, Director General forCommercial and Economic Law, Federal Ministry ofJustice and Consumer Protection, and by ThomasRehder, President of ECSA.

The main focus of CMI 2014 Hamburg was the

This is being done as an experiment to try to addressthe almost insurmountable problem of overlappingpresentations with other sessions at our CMIgatherings. We hope that being able to watch CMIpresentations online will bring our work to a muchbroader CMI audience. (I would in due courseappreciate feedback on this idea and I will let NMLAsknow when the material has been uploaded.)

Let me make mention also of a most successful Berlinadd-on which was attended by close on 100 delegates.The highlight was undoubtedly a session in one of thecommittee rooms of the Bundestag to which we weregenerously allowed access and given an address byBerlin Parliamentarian Stefan Evers. Here we alsoheard short presentations from Germany, Belgium,Brazil, Japan and Spain dealing with recent efforts toreform those countries’ maritime laws. It wasunanimously agreed that a similar session onMaintaining Maritime Laws should be a regularfeature at CMI gatherings.

No commentary on the Hamburg conference wouldbe complete without recognising the Comité’sappreciation of the great efforts of the DVIS, itsconference organisers, Brands Alive, The AtlanticKempinski Hotel, and indeed their whole team. Wealso much appreciate the generous sponsorship of theGerman shipping industry and many Hamburglawfirms. And, though I declared at the opening ofthe sessions that my main task was to ensure that therewere demanding working sessions so that delegatesdid not have too much fun, I am pleased to say myenjoinder was not entirely successful. A reception atthe magnificent Rathaus with interesting addressesSenator Schiedek, the Hamburg Justice Senator; acall at the International Tribunal of the Law of theSea hosted by the President of the Tribunal; a dinner(with a World Cup opening game) at the MaritimeMuseum, and many other special features ofHamburg combined to make CMI2014Hamburg amemory that will live long in the hearts of thoseprivileged to have been there.

At the splendid gala dinner in the magnificent blue-and-white Großer Festsaal of the Atlantic Hotel (inwhich, in much more sombre guise, we had held ourworking sessions) the DVIS Presidents, hosts KlausRamming and Dieter Schwampe, were invited to‘surrender the CMI colours’ to the Comité. This theyduly did with great aplomb – so that the Secretary-General could present the CMI banner to the Turkishdelegation into whose care we have entrusted the2015 Colloquium and Assembly. you may want tosave the dates: CMI2015Istanbul: Welcome onSunday evening 7th June, with working sessions 8thand 9th June and an add-on excursion on Wednesday10th June. We at the CMI, and the Turkish MaritimeLaw Association hope to see you there.

JOHN HARE

Secretary-General

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CMI’s Draft International Convention on ForeignJudicial Sales of Ships and their Recognition whichhad eluded finalisation at both Beijing and Dublin.The need for a CMI conference hot on the heels ofthe Dublin symposium of 2013 was vindicated by theadoption of the draft convention’s text at theAssembly of the Comité in Hamburg on June 17th

2014. The Assembly was the culmination of manyyears of hard work by Prof Henry Li, RapporteursJonathan Lux and Andrew Robinson, and themembers of their IWG. In Hamburg there wereenergetic ISC sessions over the preceding weekend,followed by an all day conference session and aPlenary to settle the text. The Instrument was carriedby 24 ayes and two abstentions. The President wasfulsome in his thanks and praise for those who hadbrought this important instrument into being. TheCMI will now embark upon a process to promote thedraft’s acceptance and adoption through appropriateinternational channels.

Outside the judicial sales debates, there were twomain themes. The first theme (of which judicial salestook the lead) was Ships in Hot Water which sawdiscussions on debt, ship financing and refinancing,cross-border insolvency, and the need forharmonisation and reform of the laws relating towrongful arrest of ships. The second, Ships in ColdWater , produced fascinating addresses on currentissues under consideration by our Polar ShippingIWG – including a review of the application ofuNCLOS in polar waters; the Northern Sea Route;the Polar Code now being developed by the IMO;and aspects of loadlines and civil liability in polarwaters.

There was also an interesting miscellany of topics thatdid not quite fit into either theme: the liability ofclassification societies was revisited; there werepresentations on legal issues and new Germanlegislation dealing with the use of armed guards andprivate security on board ships as an anti-piracymeasure; on ship emissions and the law; and there wasan update on the Nairobi Wreck RemovalConvention and the MLC, 2006. Issues of GeneralAverage law were debated over the weekend at ISCand during an update seminar session from Taco vander Valk. All in preparation for more work beingdone on GA reforms in the lead-up to next year’sColloquium and the CMI 2016 New yorkConference.

The young CMI group presented an afternoon ofsessions and discussions around the complex topic ofThe Degree of Fault – “Recklessly and with knowledgethat damage would probably result”. unfortunatelythis again paralleled the Assembly, but an innovationof this year’s conference was that all the ‘interest’sessions were audiovisually recorded. The files are tobe uploaded to the Hamburg conference website, andwill in time be transferred to the CMI’s home site.

MINUTES OF THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MEETING HELD ON 15 JUNE 2014 FROM 09H00 TO 16H30 AT THE ATLANTIC HOTEL,

HAMBURG, GERMANY

Participating:

President: STuART HETHERINGTON

Past-President: KARL-JOHAN GOMBRII

Vice-Presidents: GIORGIO BERLINGIERI

CHRISTOPHER DAVIS

Secretary-General: John HARE

Administrator: Lawrence TEH *Treasurer/Head Office Director: Benoit GOEMANS

Councillors: Tomotaka FuJITA

Måns JACOBSSON

Louis MBANEFO

Jorge RADOVICH

Andrew TAyLOR

Dihuang SONG

Dieter SCHWAMPE

Alexander VON ZIEGLER

* Absent from the meeting as he was involved in the ISC meetings taking place on Judicial Sales. In attendance: Anne Verlinde (by invitation).

followed up post-Hamburg for reporting to nextmeetings.The liability of classification societies was reopenedfor discussions at the Hamburg conference. See fur-ther comment in the minutes of EXCO meeting #2.The Secretary-General reported that Rosalie Balkinhad accepted appointment as the CMI observer tothe IOPC Funds, and that this appointment hadbeen cleared with Jose Maura, Director of the IOPCFunds.On the issue of criminality and of the protection ofhuman rights on board ship (brought to the atten-tion of EXCO by David Hebden) it was decided torefer the matter to Olivia Murray on the FairTreatment IWG.

3.(a) Minutes of a meeting of Management Committee

in Antwerp 16 and 17 March 2014The President reported on the useful meeting of thePresident himself, the Secretary-General, theAdministrator, the Treasurer and Anne Verlinde,the newly appointed CMI Administrative Assistant,at the new offices of the CMI in Antwerp. TheMinutes of that meeting were duly tabled and noted.(b) Matters arising from Minutes of Management

Meeting (not on the Agenda for this EXCOmeeting)(i) The Secretary-General reported that the

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WelcomeThe President welcomed Councillors to the meet-ing, recording greetings to and reporting news ofNigel Frawley and his ongoing medical treatment.CMI’s best wishes are with him.

1. Approval of Minutes (a) Dublin meetings on 29 September and 1 October

2013 The Minutes of those meetings were duly approvedand were signed by the President and the Secretary-General.(b) Confirmation of Resolutions passed on 27-29

November (re New York 2016) and November/December 2013 (CMI Officers/Committees).

These Resolutions were duly confirmed and weresigned by the President and the Secretary-General.

2. Matters arising from Minutes and Resolutionsreferred to in paragraphs 1(a) and 1(b)

Capt Kim of the Planning Committee has submitteda draft memo on the collision issues which he wouldlike examined. The Planning Committee will reportfurther on this issue during the ensuing year.Kiran Khosla has been invited to prepare a memooutlining the concerns she has about increasingclaims against shipowners for the debts of theircharterers. Informal discussions were held betweenJohn Hare and Ms Khosla, and the matter will be

rather than a deficit. It was however thought thatbecause of significant efforts to reduce expenses,there could be one last year with no subscriptionincreases.The Treasurer explained that these savings are to alarge extent due to more efficient management ofCMI and taking advantage of developments whichhave enabled more efficient management – digitis-ing etc. Another saving comes from the reductionof EXCO actual meetings. Travelling is a large partof costs of CMI. One electronic meeting a year isefficient. Revenues have been much improvedfrom a significant effort through Karl Gombrii andChris Davis to recover bad debts.The surplus reserve of €600K is invested in terms ofthe post 2008 policy that the CMI spread the invest-ments over investment houses and across severalindustries. Most are with BNP Paribas, but theactual investments are spread across various coun-tries.The President has investigated the possibility ofinvesting in, for example, Australia or othereconomies where a better rate of interest can begained. However money laundering legislationwould require CMI to be incorporated in otherjurisdictions. The Treasurer also confirmed that theCMI could get better rates for longer term invest-ments – like six years. But we would then be tiedinto a long term rate and could lose rather thangain. Higher rates of interest were usually tied toforeign exchange rate risks in the currencies thatgave such higher rates. CMI policy has usually beento maintain finances in a single currency. Higherrates in other currencies presume increased curren-cy risks. Presently all CMI funds are held in Eurosexcept reimbursement funds in relatively smallamounts in currencies where reimbursement is com-mon.The President enquired whether maybe half of thereserves should go into longer term investments.The Treasurer confirmed that the return remains 2 -3 % even for three year terms, and considered it toolimiting to invest longer term and that at these cur-rent low rates, the CMI is probably losing valuefrom inflation.There followed further discussion concerning theadvantages and disadvantages of various invest-ments including industry bonds, and the retentionof investment advisers. It was determined that further consideration neededto be given to this issue and Andrew Taylor andMåns Jacobsson undertook to look into investmentpolicy further, and to report to EXCO.The Treasurer reported cash at bank of €607000.The Secretary-General then explained theConference item figures in the budget against theactual Hamburg expenses for which he was main-taining a spreadsheet to enable him to keep track ofconcessions and costs falling to the CMI account.He explained the way in which the Hamburg PCOhad been instructed to maintain three journals ofthe Conference costs: detailing the CMI expenses,

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signed originals of all Resolutions of EXCOand of the Assembly would from now on befiled in a master file at the Antwerp office.Copies are then to be made available to EXCOand on the CMI website.(ii) The Dublin database and the Hamburgdatabase have been captured by Ms Verlindeand will be used for future CMI events. TheSecretariat will look into constructing andmaintaining a searchable database of NMLAs,Titulary and Consultative members to be avail-able at least to EXCO members. The format ofthis database (Excel or Access) should alloweasy bulk mailing to all classes of members bythe Secretariat, and easy maintenance ofchanges. (iii) The Secretary-General has been in touchwith Prof Sturley on the possibility of aTravaux Préparatoire of the Rotterdam Rules.He has been informed by Prof Sturley and ProfFujita that they are co-authoring a publicationon the Travaux of the Rules. The CMI willmaintain contact with them to assess if there isany possibility of joint publication so that theCMI can co-publish a volume as part of itsseries of Travaux.

4. Finances(a) Treasurer’s report including accounts / Audit

Committee report / Budget for 2015 EXCO considered two alternative budgets whichhad been prepared for discussion by the Treasurer –one with an increase in subscriptions in 2015, theother without. An increase of 10% for 2015 sub-scriptions would achieve a surplus of €1194. Noincrease would produce a deficit of approximately€18500. After considerable discussion it was decid-ed that the Treasurer should recommend to theAssembly that the CMI should operate one moreyear on a deficit budget but that he should alert theAssembly that there will need to be an increase insubscriptions for 2016 in order to keep the CMIreserves to approximately €500000. Thereafter theCMI should aim to break even or make a modestsurplus. The Treasurer explained that we have over the last15 years in fact achieved significant savings. If youapply an inflation factor over that period, the CMIhas in fact this past year spent about half of themoney spent per annum 15 years ago. The CMIbuilt up reserves approaching €1m which was con-sidered by the Audit Committee and EXCO to betoo high. In a conscious step to reduce the reserveswhich had been built at the expense of NMLAs, thedecision was taken to have a subscription ‘holiday’and thereafter to reduce subscriptions. These wererecognised at the time as temporary measures. Inaddition subscriptions for Titulary Members weredone away with. With reserves now at an accept-able level, the CMI should be reverting to a policywhere budgets should be estimating a small surplus

retirement age but has been asked by theAssociation to carry on initially to Dec 2014 andnow until May 2015.He confirmed that Peter Verstuyft remained willingto take the position. The President was mandatedto continue discussions with Peter Verstuyft with aview to his taking over as Treasurer from early 2015.This will have financial implications for the CMI,and will involve moving the CMI administrationfrom the Goemans office to the registered premisesof the CMI which is already at the BelgianShipowners. Anne Verlinde would then work withPeter Verstuyft at the new office.Benoit Goemans undertook to prepare the 2014accounts for presentation to the 2015 Assembly andthat he (Benoit) would oversee the transition.It was recorded that if Benoit Goemans indeed stepsdown at the end of December (in mid term) EXCOhas the power to appoint a new Treasurer as aninterim, to be confirmed at the Istanbul Assembly.Benoit Goemans will discuss with Peter Verstuyftand the President, and report further to EXCO atthe virtual meeting in November.

(f) BookkeeperThe Treasurer informed the meeting that the CMIemploys the services of a bookkeeper @ €1500 paand that this would continue into the appointmentof his successor to assist with continuity and transi-tion. These fees are recorded in the accounts asbeing part of the audit fees.

(g) Archive Anne Verlinde reported that the archive has beenremoved from Wim Fransen’s office. She has donea stocktake and inventory and is in the process ofworking out the costs of storage for the future.A selection of CMI publications and products hadbeen brought to Hamburg for sale.

(h) CMI Charitable Trust (i) Valuation of securities 12 May 2007 (ii) Retirement of Charles Goldie as Trustee.

These items from the Charitable Trust were tabledfor noting only. The approval of EXCO for the res-ignation of Charles Goldie was given, and it wasreported that the approval of the appointment bythe Trustees of Anne Fenech and StuartHetherington as Trustees was recorded as part ofthe Resolution for appointment of IWG and ISCs.EXCO noted thanks to Charles Goldie for his longservice to the Trust.

(i) Employment of Anne Verlinde Anne Verlinde excused herself from the meeting.The Treasurer reported that Ms Verlinde had beenhired on a part-time basis for approx. 8 hours perweek, and that we were tied to the agency until theend of August. There was consensus that she isdoing an excellent job, and that in principle wewould like to employ her once our contract with the

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the Conference expenses and the DVIS expensesseparately. He indicated that the exposure of theCMI for the Conference was in the region of€65000. This figure was likely to reduce because ofthe good attendance at Hamburg which shouldboost revenues. The figure includes the cost ofEXCO members and the CMI business of theConference.

(b) Report of collection of outstanding subscriptions. Chris Davis tabled a report. He reported that thePresident has corresponded with the Russian MLA,and he is in correspondence with the Korean MLA.He was authorised to seek to enter into a deferredpayment agreement for arrears. Spain has madeproposals for a deferred payment of arrears whichwas tabled. This was agreed for sign-off by thePresident.South Africa – John Hare was tasked to chase SouthAfrica’s arrears for previous years (their current sub-scriptions having been paid on time).The arrears of other countries were reported and afurther contact with those MLAs is to take place. Itwas agreed that EXCO recommend to the Assemblythat expulsion process should commence forPakistan and Bulgaria. Costa Rica and Netherlands Antilles had bothceased to operate, and it was resolved to removeboth from the CMI list of members.

(c) Approval of nomination of Mal Meuldermans &Partners BVBA as auditor of the 2015 accounts.

Approved.

[The meeting was at this stage joined by members ofthe Turkish MLA – Prof Didem Light, Mr SurtaçSayhan, and his daughter Bahar Sayhan. EXCO wasgiven a short presentation to confirm the offer of theTurkish MLA to host the CMI 2015 Assembly andColloquium in Istanbul. The delegation was invitedto make a presentation to the Assembly which wouldbe asked to confirm the arrangements for Istanbul2015 (see 10(a) below).]

(d) CMI officers’ stipendsSecretary General

The Secretary-General excused himself from discus-sions.After discussion, approval was given for theSecretary-General’s stipend for 2014 to remain at€12000 pa, increasing to €15000 pa for 2015.

(e) The Treasurer’s retirement. Benoit Goemans confirmed to the meeting that hehad told the Management Committee meeting inMarch that he wished to retire with effect from theend of 2014. He confirmed that he (and theBelgium MLA) recommended to the CMI that PeterVerstuyft be appointed as Treasurer of the CMI.Mr Verstuyft is currently the CEO of the BelgianShipowners Association. He has already reached

and Louis Mbanefo had been corresponding andboth considered the application to be in order. Itwas supported by Kofi Mbiah and resulted fromcontact made by the Secretary-General last year dur-ing his participation in a maritime seminar forjudges. Mr Asare will be attending the Assembly.The application was approved for recommendationto the Assembly.

(c) Consultative Member: Nautical InstituteThe Secretary-General reported on his dealings withthe Nautical Institute and that we are already coop-erating with their expert on Polar Shipping. Agreedthat the Nautical Institute be recommended to theAssembly as a Consultative Member.

(d) Titulary MembersThe following nominations have been timeously andproperly received:

(i) Francis Nolan (ii) Hal Watson (iii) Gregory O’Neill (iv) Benoit Goemans (v) Måns Jacobsson (vi) Gregory Timagenis

It was unanimously agreed that all the nominees berecommended to the Assembly for election asTitulary Members.

(e) Expulsion of MLAs(i) Guatemala The President reported that Guatemala had

been sent a notice, in accordance with theConstitution, concerning possible expulsion forcontinued non-payment of subscription arrears.There having been no response, it was agreed thatthe Assembly be asked to expel Guatemala.

(ii) Costa RicaCosta Rica – The President reported on an

email received from Tomas Nassar confirming thatthe Costa Rica MLA no longer exists. It was agreedthat Costa Rica will therefore be removed from listof members. The President has invited Mr Nassarto ascertain interest in setting up a regional MLA inCentral America. Mr Nassar has now notified JorgeRadovich that he is willing to proceed.The Secretary-General will send Mr Nassar a copyof the application of East Africa as pro forma afterclearing with them.

(f) Resignation of Netherlands Antilles The President and Taco van der Valk have madeefforts to obtain confirmation that the NetherlandsAntilles MLA is no longer in existence. The formertreasurer has confirmed that the Association is nolonger a member of the CMI. It was agreed to remove the Netherland Antillesfrom the list of members and to write off arrears.

(g) Spanish MLA proposal As reported above, the President was authorised tosign the tabled agreement for a phased settlement ofarrears.

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agency comes to an end. Terms are to be negotiatedwith Ms Verlinde by the Treasurer and Secretary-General and submitted to EXCO for approval. Weshould ensure that her contract accords withBelgian employment law.

(j) Registration of seat of CMIThis is now complete, and the CMI is officiallylocated at its registered office.

5. Members and appointments

(a) New member applications:(i) SenegalThe President reported that there was CMI his-

tory in relation to Senegal, which had fallen intoarrears with subscriptions and been expelled in2005. Their representative, Abubacar Fall, was inHamburg for the Conference and has reported thattheir MLA has revived. Jean-Serge Rohart, PatrickGriggs and Karl Gombrii who had all been involvedwith the Senegal membership in the past have allagreed that it would be appropriate to recommend-ed its readmission.Agreed to recommend readmission of Senegal to theAssembly, at an annual subscription of €500. LouisMbanefo to include Senegal in his portfolio.

(ii) Romania The President reported that some of the mem-

bers attended at Dublin and were registered forHamburg, and that in the lead up to Dublin theywere encouraged to increase the breadth of theirmembership and delay seeking membership of CMI.They had since increased their membership andactivities. Agreed to recommend admission of Romania to theAssembly at a subscription of €500. Alex vonZiegler to include Romania in his portfolio.

(iii) East Africa Regional MLAThe President, Secretary-General and Louis

Mbanefo reported their dealings with the EARMLA.Their application for membership was consideredexcellent and there was consensus that the RegionalMLA was a good development for the CMI.It was agreed to recommend admission of EARM-LA to the Assembly for membership at an initialsubscription of €500.Louis Mbanefo to include the EARMLA in his port-folio.

(b) Provisional membership (i) Theis Klauberg (Latvia) Dieter Schwampe reported meeting with Theis

Klauberg, the applicant, in Dublin and offering himhelp from the German association. Both thePresident and Karl Gombrii had encouraged him toform an MLA. The application was approved forrecommendation to the Assembly.

(ii) Kwabena Asare (Ghana)The Secretary-General tabled a letter of appli-

cation received from Kwabena Asare with whom he

place as to what to do with the notification of ter-mination of cover, and ships continue to tradewithout cover although in most cases the insurerremains on risk for 3 months after termination.That consideration be given as to whetheramendments to current PSC/Mou systems are inneed of amendment in relation to this issue.

• It was agreed that the IWG prepare a short ques-tionnaire to go out via the Secretary-General, butonly after the text has been approved by EXCO.

Dieter Schwampe has submitted his resignation asChair but confirmed that he will stay on the IWG.He proposed Joseph Grasso (uSA) as his successor.Mr Grasso until recently chaired the MLAuSMarine Insurance Committee. The President sug-gested that the IWG be asked to discuss the pro-posed questionnaire with the new IMO LegalCommittee Director, Fred Kenney. Especially as towhere a questionnaire would lead if done.The Secretary-General remarked that the appoint-ment of Mr Grasso and the proposed contactbetween Mr Grasso and Mr Kenney would be goodfor cooperation with the uSA in the lead-up to Newyork 2016. The issues could well be included in theprogramme for 2016, and replies to a questionnairewould inform those discussions.The President was tasked to discuss the proposalthat Mr Grasso take over the chairmanship of theIWG with the uS MLA and if approved to inviteJoseph Grasso to take the chair of the MarineInsurance IWG, to brief him on important issuesabout the content of CMI questionnaires, and invitehim to contact Fred Kenny to assess IMO intereston these issues. The IWG is asked to report to theNovember EXCO virtual meeting, maybe with amemo and draft questionnaire. Dieter Schwampeoffered to assist this process.

(e) Cross-border InsolvencyChris Davis tabled the report on Cross-BorderInsolvency for presentation to the Assembly.

(f) Arctic/Antarctic Legal Regimes (now PolarShipping)

The Secretary-General reported that Nigel Frawleyhad tendered his resignation as Chair of the IWG,though he would like to remain on it. Prof. AldoChircop was recommended as his successor by MrFrawley, and was running the IWG for theHamburg conference.Prof. Chircop’s appointment was agreed and thecomposition of the IWG would be further discussedwithin the IWG and referred to EXCO forapproval. It was suggested that the IWG should beexpanded to include representation from the Eastand the deep South.The Secretary-General proposed that the name ofthe IWG be changed to “Polar Shipping” to reflectits remit and scope better. This had the approval ofthe IWG. The name change was agreed.Prof. Chircop’s report for presentation to theAssembly was in preparation.

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(h) Review of Norman Martinez (Honduras) provi-sional membership

The President has been in touch with NormanMartinez who has relocated to Malta and has alsohad correspondence with Mr Cesar Garcia aboutthe development of a Honduran or regional MLA.It was agreed that in the circumstances there was lit-tle point in the retention of his provisional member-ship. The President will communicate further withMr Martinez.

(i) Report on potential new members and currentmembers

The President’s report was tabled. Alex von Zieglerreported on the position of the Swiss MLA. TheMLA was part of the Swiss Shipping Association.That relationship has now ended. This involves noreal change for the CMI. The new Swiss MLA hasfull autonomy. As the Swiss MLA is the successorto the old, the CMI is not required to do anything,other than to note this development.

6. Work in Progress

(a) Acts of Piracy and Maritime ViolenceAndrew Taylor tabled an update which will be putbefore the Assembly. There was nothing further toreport.

(b) Fair Treatment of Seafarers Olivia Murray’s report was tabled for presentationto the Assembly by Kiran Khosla.

(c) Recognition of Foreign Judicial Sales of Ships Henry Li’s report was tabled for presentation to theAssembly, in concert with the outcome of thePlenary to be held at Hamburg to finalise the text ofthe instrument.The appreciation and commendation of EXCO forHenry Li and his team were recorded.

(d) Marine InsuranceDieter Schwampe’s report on Marine Insurance forpresentation to the Assembly was tabled. ProfSchwampe reported that the scope of the remit ofthe IWG is continually narrowing and that it nowfocuses on those aspects which are summarised onthe last page of the report as:• The recommendation that national governments

require insurers to provide confirmation thatcover provided is at least for minimum conven-tion requirements,

• That the IMO be encouraged to extend theBunker Convention financial security require-ments to other convention security requirements;

• That the IWG does not proceed with attempts toharmonise time limits for direct actions againstinsurers at this stage;

• That the IWG be authorised by EXCO to putout a questionnaire to NMLAs on practices andprocedures in the case of termination of insur-ance cover. Not all countries have systems in

A supplementary report was also received fromPatrick Griggs dealing with the issue of liability andcompensation for transboundary pollution from off-shore exploration and exploitation activities. Thereport recorded the participation of the CMIobservers at the IMO Legal Committee meeting inLondon in April 2014 and that the IMO had recom-mended bi-lateral and regional agreements be con-sidered rather than international convention regula-tion. It recorded that all present at the LegalCommittee had been of the view that further workneeds to be undertaken. The CMI observers report-ed to the Legal Committee that the CMI had sentout a questionnaire, but that to date there has beenlimited reply. The IWG is to debate the issue fur-ther in Hamburg and to report further to EXCO.

(j) Arbitration (Ad hoc IWG) No formal report of this IWG was tabled. Anexchange of informative and helpful emails betweenLuc Grellet, David Martowski, Vincent de Orchis,Leo Kailas and Liz Burrell however was put beforeEXCO. The essence of this exchange was that “theCMI is uniquely suited to promote uniform interna-tional maritime arbitral practice and procedure, andthat an important first step would be an impartialand expert review/comparison of the various fora”.The President was asked to request Luc Grellet,Chair of the IWG, to let EXCO have a further reportfor November meeting to decide on the way forward.

(k) Cape Town Convention The President tabled correspondence from ICS sug-gesting that it was indicated that the proposed pro-tocol to extend the reach of the Convention to shipswas not likely to proceed, at least at this stage. Thisconfirms correspondence received by the Presidentfrom Jose Faria, uNIDROIT Secretary-General on25 February 2014 when he advised that uNIDROITis gathering information on financing practices andadvised that uNIDROIT would welcome any infor-mation that CMI could provide concerning financ-ing practices in the maritime sector.The Secretary-General reported on contact withProf Roy Goode of Oxford who Chairs theConvention committee, confirming the CMI’s inter-est in the Convention, yet making it clear that theCMI sees problems in extending the Convention toship finance agreements. He hopes to meet withProf Goode during future visits to Oxford.In the circumstances, no decision was necessary toform a new IWG dealing with the Cape TownConvention, but EXCO will monitor future devel-opments.

7. Standing Committees

(a) Jurisprudence on Maritime ConventionsThe Treasurer reported on this project and especial-ly on the involvement of Audile Plegat. EXCO wasreferred to the minutes of the March 2014

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(g) Review of the Rules on General Average

The IWG report on General Average was not yetavailable for the EXCO meeting. Taco van der Valkwould be presenting the report to the Assembly,and at a session of the seminar in Hamburg.The appointment of Richard Cornah as JointRapporteur was agreed.The President advised that Bent Nielsen had raisedinformally with him an issue that has arisen concern-ing cash deposits in GA where adjusters take cashdeposits, and that in consequence there are securityissues. The question has been asked whether there isany role the CMI can take in rationalising the way inwhich these GA security deposits are held – often invery large amounts. And often also in many securitydeposits. Discussion pointed out that the CMI wouldhave to employ someone from the industry and itwould involve risks/insurance. It was mentioned thatthe German inland waterways take security deposit,but for smaller amounts. Andrew Taylor expressedthe opinion that this is a problem for the industry tosolve, notwithstanding that we are keepers of theyAR. Adjusters need to solve this issue and perhapsinsure as part of the costs of adjustment.The issue was noted, and reservations expressed,but no decision was required of EXCO at this stage.

[Lunch adjournment 13h00 to 14h00]

(h) Rotterdam Rules Tomotaka Fujita tabled the report of the RotterdamRules IWG for presentation to the Assembly.The President reported on his meeting with IMOLegal Committee Director Fred Kenney. Itappeared to the President after that meeting that theRules are still far off from ratification in the uSAand thus the President’s campaign in the shippingpress to promote the incorporation of the Rules by aClause Paramount in contracts of carriage.(Subsequent information from the uSA indicatesthat the Transmittal Package is now with theSecretary of State and ready to be sent to the WhiteHouse.) Tomotaka Fujita reported on the deliberations ofthe uNCITRAL working group on electronic com-merce. This is mentioned also in the IWG report.Karl Gombrii expressed the view that incorporationby Clause Paramount will require the support of theInternational Group and that to that end, the IWGneeds to cooperate with the IG and the ICS to gath-er support for the Clause Paramount route. ThePresident advised that he was in communicationwith individual Clubs and the International Group,but there is a lack of urgency in the Clubs to see theRotterdam Rules comes into effect.

(i) Offshore Activities The report of the Patrick Griggs as chair of theIWG on Offshore Activities was tabled for presen-tation to the Assembly.Offshore Activities - Pollution Liability and relatedissues

Amendments to Part 3 are also under consideration.The Secretary-General has suggested to EXCO thata more general and wider amendment of Article 15may be appropriate for consideration by theConstitution Committee and referral in due courseto EXCO and the Assembly.The Secretary-General asked leave to join theConstitution Committee, which was agreed. It wassuggested also that the Committee should invitePhilippe Boisson to serve on the Committee or tonominate a substitute.

(e) General Average Interest Rates A draft resolution for the Assembly was tabled assupplied by Chair Bent Nielsen. It was agreed that Andrew Taylor and Taco van derValk join Bent Nielsen on this Committee.

8. Monitoring MLAs by Executive Council

The Secretary-General expressed the concern thatperhaps there had not been as much contactbetween EXCO members and their NMLA chargesas the guidelines in his document envisages. He willbe encouraging EXCO members in the future toengage more actively with their NMLAs.

9. PublicationsDiscussions ensued on the yearbook andNewsletter; LinkedIn; the CMI website and theHandbook on Maritime Conventions. Giorgio Berlingieri reported that the first thing tobe done is the Newsletter. Mr Berlingieri confirmedthat the Newsletters are not mailed any more.He is busy on the 2014 yearbook – and will updateentries after Hamburg. These will then be sent tothe CMI website. He will aim to have it publishedby the end of 2014 and for it to include papers fromDublin and Hamburg.No progress was reported on the CMI Handbookon Maritime Conventions, and the Secretary-General was tasked with checking with FrankWiswall, with whom he has recently been in contact.The issue of putting the full text of conventions onthe CMI site was raised. The IMO has been opposedto this because it generates revenue, although theconventions are available on many websites.

10. Colloquium and Conferences

(a) Colloquium in 2015Chris Davis reported on his recent visit to Istanbuland gave a favourable opinion on the suitability andcapability of the Turkish MLA to host the 2015Colloquium. He recorded that the political situationin Turkey, though still volatile, was reportedly morestable. The President reported that Prof KerimAtamer had pledged his support for Istanbul 2015,notwithstanding his previous expressed reservations. In the light of Chris Davis’ observations, and in con-sequence of the excellent Turkish presentation given

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Management Committee meeting for further details.In essence, Ms Plegat had organised the distributionof a questionnaire, and had made a start with gath-ering submissions. She had worked with Admission(the CMI’s web managers, now renamed VanillaBrief) and website has been built though it is notaccessible nor searchable at this stage. Ms Plegat’scontract had not been renewed when it came to anend in March. The Management Committee had discussed waysforward for this initiative and had resolved toapproach Prof Stephen Girvin of the Nationaluniversity of Singapore to ascertain his willingnessto drive the project from a Singapore base. ProfGirvin has expressed positive indications, butacceptable details now need to be discussedbetween Prof Girvin, the Singapore Port Authoritywho have offered to meet some administrative costsof the CMI Singapore regional office. TheAdministrator was tasked with taking this further, inconsultation with Taco van der Valk who has pro-vided valuable input to the initiative.The Treasurer questioned whether the CMI D&Ocovers any errors that may arise in the database orits use. If not we should make provision for waiverof liability, perhaps by means of a login or tick boxon the database site.

(b) Implementing and Promoting the Ratification ofMaritime Conventions

Louis Mbanefo as Chair of this Committee, report-ed not much development since Dublin, though heintroduced Patrick Griggs’s email report on the res-olution of the IMO to adopt its theme for 2014 asthe ratification of existing conventions.

(c) Young CMI The report of Taco van der Valk was tabled for pre-sentation to the Assembly. It confirms the work ofthe Committee, culminating in the cooperation ofyoung CMI with the young Maritime LawyersGroup (Belgian, British, Dutch, French andGerman young maritime lawyers) during theHamburg Conference, when each were to attend thedeliberations of the other. This was considered tobe a valuable exchange.Taco van der Valk was commended for his drivingof young CMI and its related projects such as theconvening speakers at CMI events and CMI onLinkedIn.

(d) Constitution Committee The President (at the suggestion of the Chair of theNominating Committee) proposed an amendmentto Article 15 aiming to tidy up the nominationprocess to be put before the Assembly.The Treasurer as Chair of the ConstitutionCommittee confirmed that the Committee is consid-ering other more general amendments to the consti-tution which will be put before EXCO in time topromote at the 2015 Assembly. Some of theseamendments seek to remedy the differences in thetwo language versions - French and English.

the office of International Enterprise in Singapore inAttachment 30.EXCO agreed that the Administrator may go aheadand open discussions with uNCITRAL-RCAP witha view to cooperating with uNCITRAL as envisaged,and to report further to EXCO.

13. EU representationThe Secretary-General reported that Vincent Powerhad agreed to act as CMI Rapporteur of EuShipping Law. This was a very positive steptowards the CMI keeping up with Eu shipping lawdevelopments. The intention is that Mr Power willsubmit regular Eu Shipping Bulletins to EXCO andthat he would be asked each year to prepare a shortsummary report for the Assembly.The Secretary-General was tasked with follow-up.

14. CMI - The FutureThe report of Liz Burrell as chair of the Ad hocCommittee on the Future Role of the CMI wastabled in which it was reported that there had beenseven telephone conferences between members ofthe committee. The committee is still deliberatingthe issues it has identified and is examining ways ofcollecting input from CMI members. It has no rec-ommendations to proffer at this stage.

15. Planning CommitteeThe Secretary-General as chair of the PlanningCommittee reported contact between memberssince Dublin, resulting in Prof Michael Sturley join-ing the Committee. This was considered by theCommittee to be a useful step in working with theMLAuS towards 2016 New york. Only four members of the Committee are attendingHamburg, and thus a full meeting will not be possi-ble during the Hamburg week.The Committee has been in discussions with ProfEric van Hooydonk in connection with his proposedproject for the CMI to attempt a Restatement of theGeneral Principles of Maritime Law. A copy of hisproposal was tabled. It was agreed that the projectcould proceed, and that an IWG or an Ad hocCommittee should be established. The Secretary-General, Alex von Ziegler, Andrew Taylor andTomotaka Fujita indicated willingness to serve. Theview was expressed that there should be SouthAmerican representation and that Prof MartinDavies should be approached to join the group.The Secretary-General and Alex von Ziegler weretasked with setting up an initial committee, underthe chairmanship of Prof van Hooydonk.

16. D&O Insurance Summary of Policy The President tabled a summary of €1m cover nego-tiated from AIG for the CMI’s Directors andOfficers’ Liability Insurance.

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earlier in the meeting, it was decided to proceedwith the Istanbul Colloquium in 2015, and to askthe Assembly to confirm its decision in Dublin toconvene the 2015 Assembly in Istanbul. TheTurkish delegation was also invited to make a shortpresentation to the Assembly.The Secretary-General was mandated to recom-mence discussions for Istanbul 2015 with the re-formed Turkish organising committee.

(b) Conference (2016) - New York The President reported ongoing discussions with theMLAuS organising committee, headed up by VincentFoley. He reported that the New york Hilton is thehotel of choice at a probable rate of $279. ThePresident tabled the Hilton Confirmation Agreementsetting out the basics of the CMI/ MLAuS agreementwith the Hilton. It had been decided to try to overlap MLAuS andCMI committee meetings during the Conferenceweek and Chris Davis was tasked with putting the twoworking groups/committees together by inviting theirchairs to make contact with a view to suggestingmatters of mutual interest that may be put on thework programme.The Secretary-General reported that the MLAuS hadsuggested that he attend the 2015 Spring meeting tohelp prepare the work programme and that he willmake every effort to do so, enabling him to reportfully to EXCO at its Istanbul meeting.

11. IMO Legal Committee (Report by Patrick Griggs)

The report of Patrick Griggs on his attendance atthe 101st Session of the IMO Legal Committee wastabled and noted.The report is detailed, and deals with the implemen-tation of the HNS Convention; Fair Treatment;Piracy; Technical cooperation; the MLC; Places ofRefuge; IMLI and the status of conventions.

12. CMI Regional Office in Singapore The Administrator reported that the registration of therepresentative office of the CMI in Singapore had beenrenewed for a further year to 25 April 2015. The President reported that there had been anapproach from the uNCITRAL Regional Centre forAsia and the Pacific who wish to increase levels ofcoordination and cooperation with the CMI in Asia.It has singled out in particular the Rotterdam Rulesas something on which it is keen to set-up a regionalexpert group.  It has suggested that a meeting of theregional expert group could take place around thetime of the Singapore MLA’s yearly Asian MaritimeLaw Conference next spring. The Administratoroutlined the content of a letter to this effect which hehad received from uNCITRAL-RCAP and indicatedthat such an initiative would be in accord with andserve the continuation of the defined ‘Activities’ ofthe CMI Regional Office registration as defined by

his background and history, has enhanced the CMIgreatly. His efforts on the Audit Committee wereparticularly valued.An acclaim and vote of thanks to Måns Jacobssonwas unanimously adopted.

22. Other business

(1) The following correspondence was tabled andnoted.

(a) Francesco Berlingieri A letter from Prof Berlingieri thanking the CMI forthe gift of a Waterford crystal lighthouse received inDublin. (b) Dan GunasekeraA letter from Dan Gunasekera giving an update onthe formation of an MLA for Sri Lanka and its pro-posed constitution.(c) Professor David Attard (IMLI) and IMLI E-NewsCorrespondence with IMLI relating to its election asa Consultative Member of the CMI. (d) Letter to IACSCorrespondence with IACS relating to its election asConsultative Member.(e) Email from Patrick Griggs to Rosalie BalkinCorrespondence between Patrick Griggs andRosalie Balkin re IOPC Funds and IMO LegalCommittee representation. (f) Black Sea Freight Forum 8-9 September 2014Invitation to attend the above forum.

(2) Indian MLA Change of Name It was noted that the Indian Maritime LawAssociation was changing its name to avoid its namebeing too close to CMI.

(3) Review of the 50% discount of the registrationcosts of Consultative Members for CMIConferences

The Secretary-General pointed out that the CMIGuidelines for Conferences para 5(e) suggests a50% discount on the registration fee of representa-tives of Consultative members. However the guide-lines do not specify what is to happen where morethan one member of a particular organisation wishesto attend. There is at present no limit as to howmany delegates from one Consultative membershould be given this discount. While the Secretary-General realises that the CMI wants Consultativemembers to send delegates to CMI Conferences, hedoubts that there is economic justification for thediscount because Consultative members are corpo-rate. He reminded the meeting that Consultativemembers pay no subscription fee. He suggests thatthe Guidelines be amended either to remove the dis-count, or to limit it to the first delegate should therebe more than one. There is no discount providedfor in the Colloquium or Symposium Guidelines.It was decided that the Guidelines for Conferencesbe amended to limit the discount for Consultativemembers to one person.

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17. IMLI and Ravenna Prizes There has as yet been no award of these prizes.

18. IMO Prize There has been no award as yet.

19. Richard Shaw MemorialThe President tabled an email from the Institute ofMaritime Law requesting a contribution towards anendowment in memory of Richard Shaw. After dis-cussion in which it was reiterated that the loss ofRichard was keenly felt by all in the CMI, it wasconsidered not appropriate for EXCO to vote fundsin this way.EXCO wishes however to acknowledge the enor-mous contribution of Richard Shaw to the CMI, andit was agreed that the 2014 yearbook should openwith a photo and tribute to Richard. This was con-sidered particularly appropriate because ofRichard’s almost invariable contribution to succes-sive yearbooks over many decades.The CMI would then present Avril Shaw with a spe-cially bound copy.

20. Places of Refuge The President reported on exchanges he had hadwith the Secretary-General of the IMO arising fromThe Maritime Maisie incident in which the vesselwas repeatedly denied a place of refuge. ThePresident repeated the CMI’s call for a convention,based upon the work of the IWG some years ago.As aide memoire, the President tabled the report ofthe CMI to the IMO Legal Committee in January2009 with which the CMI draft instrument was sub-mitted to the IMO.Also tabled was the IMO’s reply in which theSecretary-General of the IMO invited the CMI tobring the matter before the Legal Committee. Thiswas duly done by Patrick Griggs as reported in hisreport (see para 11). It would appear that there wasno resolve within the IMO Legal Committee to takethe matter further.

21. Elections(a) Election of officersThe report of the Chairman of the NominatingCommittee was tabled. EXCO noted the recom-mendation of the Committee that the Assembly

(i) Elect John Hare as Secretary-General (ii) Re-elect of Jorge Radovich as Executive

Councillor(iii) Elect Ann Fenech as Executive Councillor.

(b) Retirement of Måns JacobssonThe President thanked and commended MånsJacobsson for his many years of dedicated service tothe CMI, stating that it had been an honour and aprivilege to serve with him. His service, drawing on

Balkin for a finalised version for publication in theNewsletter.

23. Next meeting of the Executive CouncilThe Executive Council will meet for its secondHamburg meeting on 17 June 2014 and thereafterwould convene a Virtual meeting in the weekcommencing 24 November 2014.

Meeting ended 16h20

STuART HETHERINGTON JOHN HARE

President Secretary-General

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(4) Guidelines for the reimbursement of air travelcosts of EXCO members

The Secretary-General tabled a set of Guidelines forEXCO air travel, which were approved with theaddition proposed by Chris Davis that EXCOmembers be invited to give due credit towards airtravel costs where their flights are used also forbusiness travel.

(5) Report of CMI Observer to IOPC FundsA draft report from Rosalie Balkin had been submit-ted to the Secretary-General but was not ready forrelease. The Secretary-General will approach Ms

PRESIDENT’S REPORT TO THE CMI ASSEMBLY

Although only 9 months has elapsed since we met inDublin a lot seems to have happened in theintervening period.

Administrative ArrangementsThe retirement of our long serving Secretary-General,Nigel Frawley from that role at the DublinSymposium added to the challenges which we werefaced with since then. Happily John Hare, who wasappointed on an interim basis at the ExecutiveCouncil meeting immediately following the Assemblymeeting in Dublin, has stepped into the role as if hehad been born to it. Lawrence Teh has also risen tothe challenge of the role as Administrator.

The Management CommitteeIn order to expose the new team to all of the variousissues that come before the Executive Council Idecided to meet with the new Secretary-General andAdministrator as well as the Treasurer, BenoitGoemans on 17 March. We met in the new registeredoffice of the CMI at Ernist Van Dijckkaai, on theRiver Scheldt, in Antwerp. We met in a room inwhich a large cabinet has been situated to house thehistorical publications of the CMI. I urge anyonemaking a visit to that part of Europe to try andinclude a stopover in Antwerp, which has much tooffer tourists, quite apart from the CMI connection. The matters which were discussed at the ManagementCommittee Meeting will also be the subject ofdiscussion at the Executive Council Meeting on 15June 2014, immediately before the Conference andSeminar in Hamburg on the following days 16 and 17June 2014. Some of them will be discussed further onin this report and also at the Assembly Meeting.We were joined for a part of our meeting by AnnVerlinde, who had shortly before, on 3 March, beenappointed as the head office secretarial assistant ofCMI. Her appointment is on an interim basis whilewe satisfy ourselves that she has the right skills for therole and she satisfies herself that she is happy with the

role. We also met with Kris Meuldeimans, who hasbeen the CMI auditor for the last few years and we allconsidered that it was extremely useful to meet eachother and to exchange views on the manner in whichthe CMI accounts are prepared. An added bonus from our time in Antwerp was socialinteraction with Professor Dr Erik Van Hooydonkwho would be well known to many delegates. He hasproposed a new working topic for the CMI which hehas described in a paper as “Towards a worldwiderestatement of the general principals of maritimelaw”. That is an ambitious attempt to try and identifyin modern times what are the universally acceptedmaritime customs and general principles constitutedby the Lex Maritima.The Management Committee Meeting concluded in asomewhat surprising manner, for all of us exceptBenoit, who announced that he would like to retire atthe end of this year from the role of Treasurer. Hisperiod in office in that role has spanned fourPresidents and four Secretaries-General. The BelgiumMLA has proposed that the Director of the RoyalBelgium Ship Owners Association, Peter Verstuyft,would be an appropriate replacement for Benoit. It isPeter who has permitted the CMI to use the RoyalBelgium Shipowners Association as its registeredoffice and to hold meetings in those premises. He iscurrently negotiating to retire from that role at the endof this year. He would be in a position to fulfil the roleof Treasurer from that building and (assuming thatAnne Verlinde continues to be employed by the CMIafter her trial period of 26 weeks) work with her inthat building. unless MLAs have a different viewwhich can be expressed at the Assembly, my proposalis that the Executive Council, if they are so inclined,appoint Peter, once he confirms that he is availablefor the role, pursuant to its power under Article 18g)of the Constitution, to make him interimAdministrator at the beginning of next year.Finally in relation to the Management CommitteeMeeting we were all entertained by the board of theBelgium Maritime Law Association, after the meeting,

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which was a most convivial occasion and our thanksgo to Karel Stes and his colleagues for making ourvisit so enjoyable.

FinancesThe accounts were not available at the time of writingthis report and will be sent separately.

Work projects of the CMIThere will be reports at the Assembly Meeting of theactivities of the IWGs since Dublin. I am aware thatconsiderable work was carried out by the IWGdealing with the Review of the Rules on GeneralAverage and I would like to thank Bent Neilsen andTaco Van der Valk for all the time they have devotedto this project since we last met. As you know we areworking towards finalisation of this project at theNew york conference in 2016.Henry Li and his team on the IWG dealing withRecognition of Foreign Judicial Sales of Ships havealso put together a considerable volume of materialsto assist delegates at the meeting in Hamburg wherethere will be a meeting of the International Sub-Committee over the weekend prior to the Conferenceand business sessions and a plenary session, at whichit is hoped that the Instrument they have beenworking on will be completed. Work has also continued in many of the other IWGsand as usual we all owe a great debt or gratitude tothe chairs and rapporteurs of those working groups.

Jurisprudence Database Ms Audile Plegat was employed by the CMI for sixmonths in order to commence work on gatheringtogether a team of people from around the world andwith them to identify relevant maritime cases in thejurisdictions to be summarised and placed on thedatabase on the CMI website, as well as working withwebsite consultants to produce a structure for thatdatabase. We will be discussing at the ExecutiveCouncil Meeting how we can build on the work thatshe commenced and may possibly be able to informyou further about this in Hamburg. The work, as ever,will rely primarily on volunteers in the jurisdictions ofthe National Maritime Law Associations and if youhave not already done so I would be grateful if youwould notify me, the Secretary-General and/or theAdministrator of the person or persons in yourjurisdiction that you want to involve in this process.

D&O Insurance In my report to you at Dublin I was unable to confirmthat we now had in place D&O Insurance. I am happyto say that is now in place. I have prepared a summaryof its principal provisions for the Executive Councilwhich I would be happy to provide to anyoneinterested in its contents. Similarly I would be happyto provide a copy of the policy wording to anyonewho is interested. I can confirm that the annualpremium is Euro 1584.13, The policy is underwrittenby AIG.

Communication with NMLAS In my report last year I identified NMLAS who haveprovided the CMI with email addresses for theirmembership or with a single point of reference forsending correspondence and the like directly tomembers of NMLAs (they were Argentina, Australiaand New Zealand, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada,Denmark, Dominican Republic, Germany, Italy,Norway, Panama, Switzerland, Turkey and the uSA).Since then I think I am right in saying no furtherNMLAS have provided us with the email addressesof their members. Could I urge you to do so as it doesprovide your members with a very real point ofcontact with the CMI, which might otherwise belacking in respect of those members who do notattend CMI meetings. It may also be appropriate forthose NMLAS who have previously provided us withthe contact details of their members to resend thedetails in case (as would seem be likely to be) therehave been changes in the membership or themembership's contact details.

Nominating CommitteeAs you know from last year's Assembly meeting BentNielsen stood down from chairing the NominatingCommittee which he had been doing since 2004.Johanne Gauthier has taken over that role and I amvery grateful to her to for doing so. There is aproposal at the Assembly meeting to amend theConstitution which Johanne and I both feel willimprove the process. Essentially it is intended thatJohanne will invite NMLAs to inform her of anycandidates that they wish to put forward for a positionon the Executive Council or as an officer of the CMIbefore she seeks the comments of the NMLAs on thecandidates who have been proposed. This is a simpleamendment which we consider will benefit theelection process.

RetirementsAs previously mentioned Benoit Germans hasinformed us that he would like to retire from his roleas Treasurer at the end of the year. Benoit, (and hisfather before him) has served the CMI extremely wellfor a very long time. There are not many lawyers whoare sufficiently numerate to take on the role asTreasurer of such a significant organisation. Benoit,with his pie charts and other aids to understandingthe status of our accounts, has entertained us andinformed us annually at Assembly meetings and hasserved on the Executive Council where the samedegree of good sense has informed and benefited thatbody also. We owe him a huge debt of gratitude. Weoften underestimate the amount of voluntary timeofficers of the CMI who are also busy practitioners(often in small legal practices) devote to the CMI.Another member of the Executive Council retires atthe Assembly meeting in Hamburg. After he hadceased his onerous duties running the IOPC Funds,Mans Jacobsson was elected to the Executive Council.His advice and interventions at Executive Council

and Assembly meetings (not forgetting his invaluablework on the Audit Committee) has been considerableto both me and my predecessors that he has servedunder on the Executive Council. His familiarity withthe world of shipping and also the internationalbureaucracies and industry representatives that areinvolved in our industry has been invaluable to theExecutive Council. He continues to write elegant andinformative papers on a range of topics, particularly

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oil pollution, in which his expertise is unparalleled.We will miss his sunny disposition and intelligence onthe Executive Council but I trust he will continue tobe involved with the CMI for many years to come.

STuART HETHERINGTON

President

5 May 2014

MINUTES OF THE ASSEMBLY MEETING HELD ON 17 JUNE 2014 AT 14H30 AT THE ATLANTIC HOTEL,

HAMBURG, GERMANY

– Welcome

President Stuart Hetherington welcomed all delegates present.

Attending:

Officers of the Comité Maritime International

Participating:

President: STuART HETHERINGTON

Past President: KARL-JOHAN GOMBRII

Vice-President: GIORGIO BERLINGIERI

CHRISTOPHER DAVIS

Secretary-General: JOHN HARE (taking minutes)Administrator: LAWRENCE TEH

Treasurer/(Head Office Director): BENOIT GOEMANS

Councillors: TOMOTAKA FuJITA

MåNS JACOBSSON

LOuIS MBANEFO

JORGE RADOVICH

ANDREW TAyLOR

DIHuANG SONG

DIETER SCHWAMPE

ALEXANDER VON ZIEGLER

Member Associations

Member associations were duly represented by delegates listed in the Attendance Register attached to these minutes (Annex A).

1. Report of the Credentials Committee

Chris Davis and Benoit Goemans reported that theAssembly had been properly convened with noticeof the Agenda as tabled, that a quorum of memberassociations was present, and that, in terms of theConstitution, all member associations representedwere entitled to vote.

2. Memorials

The President advised the Assembly of the passingof the following distinguished members of the CMI

family, and asked all to stand in a moment of silenttribute.

(a) Richard Shaw (Member Honoris Causa)(b) Niall McGovern (Honorary Vice-President)(c) S Venkiteswaran (Venki) (India MLA)(d) Hidetaka Moriya (Japan MLA)(e) Sergio Turci (Italy MLA)

The President read a note prepared by FrancescoBerlingieri concerning Niall McGovern and his ser-vice to the CMI and Patrick Griggs shared his mem-ories of Richard Shaw and reminded delegates of hissignificant contribution to the work of the CMI.

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3. Approval of the Minutes of the Assembly heldin Dublin on 1 October 2013

The Secretary-General tabled the minutes of themeeting of the Assembly held in Dublin on Irelandon 1 October 2013 which were duly adopted, andsigned by the President and Secretary-General.

4. Matters arising from Minutes of the Assemblyheld in Dublin on 1 October 2013

There were no matters arising other than those to bedealt with in the Agenda.

5. Report of the President

The President tabled and delivered his Report whichwas duly adopted.In his verbal report, the President made mention ofthe Management Committee meeting held in Antwerpin March and the wish of Benoit Goemans to retire asTreasurer of the CMI during the ensuing year. ThePresident recalled the enormous contribution madeto the CMI by Benoit Goemans (and his father beforehim) over decades, and that the CMI owed Benoit a“huge debt of gratitude”.He also confirmed the retirement of Måns Jacobssonfrom the Executive Council, remarking that theExecutive Council “will miss his sunny dispositionand intelligence”, and thanked him for hisconsiderable contributions to the work of the CMI.The President also reported on the engagement ofAnne Verlinde to work in the Antwerp office and herattendance in Hamburg. The President also referredto the need for MLAs to provide contact details oftheir membership (or identify a single recipient) fordirect mailings by the CMI from its website.

6. Finances

(a) The Treasurer’s report for accounts year ended 31December 2013

The Treasurer presented his report of the accounts ofthe CMI for 2013. Income for 2013 was €212 671 against expenditure of€224 554 giving a deficit of €11 883 for the year, inline with the then financial policy of reducing reservesconsidered to be greater than required. TheTreasurer recorded a significant drop in expenditurefor the year, due in part to the absence of secretarialassistance during the year under review and alsoattributable to digital era savings - and the generouswaiver by then Secretary-General Nigel Frawley of hisstipend for 2013.He reported further that 2013 reserves closed at€601635.Adoption of the Treasurer’s report was proposed byAustralia/New Zealand, seconded by Ecuador, andapproved by show of hands.

(b) Report of the Chair of the Audit CommitteeMåns Jacobsson tabled and presented the report of

the Audit Committee, in the absence of the ChairLiz Burrell.He explained that the Audit Committee examinesthe audit conducted by the CMI’s appointed audi-tors and conducts, between its members, in depthdiscussion of the auditor’s report. Owing to geo-graphic separation, these discussions are done bytelephone.Mr Jacobsson commended the Treasurer for hishandling of CMI investments in the turbulent mar-ket of the past few years. He has played safe, with-out risk to the CMI.He confirmed that the CMI has reduced reserves asdecided, gradually. Last year (2013) it was said weshould aim again for a modest deficit budget. It washowever decided that the CMI could operate on amodest deficit for a further year (2014). The AuditCommittee now feels that reserves have beenbrought down to a reasonable level, and that theCMI should thus aim for future years (2016 andbeyond) for a balanced budget.The Audit Committee recorded its full confidencein the Treasurer, and noted the fact that he hasdecided to retire, with acclaim for his considerableefforts for the CMI over many years.The Report of the Auditors was adopted with nodissent, by show of hands.

(c) Budget update for 2014 and Budget for 2015The Treasurer pointed out to the Assembly that theConstitution requires the Treasurer to prepare bud-gets for the current year (2014) and a budget projec-tion for the next year (2015). As Assemblies areoften conducted in the middle of the CMI financialyear, it is appropriate in mid-year to review the esti-mated budget for the current year against the actualfigures of the first half of that budget year.The Treasurer tabled and presented an updated2014 budget reflecting a projected deficit of€46 478, and a projected budget deficit for 2015(without increase of subscriptions) of €18 453. The Secretary-General informed the Assembly thathe had submitted to EXCO a detailed accounting ofthe actual exposure of the CMI for concessions andcosts of the Hamburg Conference. The total expo-sure, including EXCO and CMI speakers’ registra-tion, travel and accommodation costs, was €66 896.This figure was then used by the Treasurer to adjustthe 2014 budget estimates for the above line items.The Secretary-General expressed the hope, withoutguarantee, that the excellent attendance at and themost generous sponsorship of the HamburgConference may result in a reduction of the CMIHamburg expenses, it having been agreed with theDVIS organising committee that the total revenuesof the Conference will be examined post-Conference in the hope that the Conference budgetmay be able to absorb a greater share of the CMIexpenses. Nevertheless it was considered proper toupdate the 2014 budget in respect of Conference-related expenses from estimates made in Dublin toactual exposure now known.

(d) Subscriptions for 2015The Treasurer expressed the clear view of EXCOand the Audit Committee that the CMI should, forthe 2015 year, be aiming for a balanced budget, andthat this could only be achieved (given the signifi-cant reduction of costs of administration alreadyachieved) by an increase in subscriptions from 2016.Notice was therefore duly given to the Assemblythat there would be an increase in subscriptionsproposed for approval by the 2015 Assembly.EXCO will need to decide the level of subscriptionsto recommend to the Assembly, in the light of theabove projected deficit of €18453 if subscriptionsare not increased. EXCO had discussed at itsHamburg meeting whether it should propose a sub-scription increase to this meeting of the Assembly.It was decided that the present level of reservesallow a continuing (and increased) deficit for the2014 year, and that the 2015 Assembly needs toreceive proper notice of proposed increases. The Treasurer confirmed that the Early bird sub-scription payment discount for 2015 would be2,5%. In response to a query from the MLAuS, heconfirmed that this discount had been reduced from5% to 2,5% which will result in a small increase insubscription revenue during 2015.Adoption of the Treasurer’s report was proposed byIreland, seconded by Australia/New Zealand, andadopted by a show of hands.The President thanked the Treasurer for his consid-erable efforts in relation to the budget.

(e) Report on collection of outstanding subscriptionsChris Davis reported progress in the collections ofarrears, and that older outstanding subscriptionshave continued to decline as a result of negotiatingsettlements with NMLAs and writing off unpaidcontributions from expelled NMLAs. About adozen defaulters remain however from 2012 andearlier, and will continue to be followed up.The President commended Chris Davis and JorgeRadovich for their continuing efforts.

(f) Approval of the Nomination of Der MolMeuldermans & Partners BVBA as auditors forthe 2015 accounts

Proposed by Greece, seconded by Switzerland andcarried by show of hands.(g) CMI Charitable TrustPatrick Griggs tabled the report of the CMICharitable Trust on behalf of Tom Birch Reynardson,who was unable to attend the Conference, for notingby the Assembly.Mr Griggs notified the Assembly that the Trust had€457187 in investment which for the past year hasproduced a return of 6,86%.Mr Griggs confirmed the resignation and acknowl-edged the contribution of Charles Goldie as Trusteeover many years, and announced that StuartHetherington and Ann Fenech had been appointedTrustees.

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7. Members:

(a) New NMLA MembersThree new members were introduced by thePresident for election as members of the CMI. ThePresident confirmed that the Executive Councilhad found that the applications were in order, prop-erly supported in each case by documentationdemonstrating them to be in accord with the pre-script of the Constitution:

(i) Senegal Accepted by acclamation(ii) Romania Accepted by acclamation(iii) East Africa Accepted by acclamation

(b) New Consultative MemberThe Secretary-General proposed the application forConsultative Status of the Nautical Institute, whichwas recommended by the Executive Council, beaccepted. He indicated the mutual benefit that suchmembership should inure for both the CMI and theInstitute. He confirmed that following contactbetween him and the Director of the NauticalInstitute earlier in the year, cooperation between theCMI and the Institute was already in place.Accepted by acclamation.

(c) Titulary Members/NominationsThe President reported the receipt of applicationsby MLAs for Titulary Membership which had beenconsidered and approved by the Executive Council. The following distinguished persons were electedby acclamation as Titulary Members

(i) Francis Nolan (uSA)(ii) Hal Watson (uSA)(iii) Gregory O’Neill (uSA)(iv) Benoit Goemans (Belgium) (v) Måns Jacobsson (Sweden)(vi) Gregory Timagenis (Greece)

(d) Expulsion of MLAsThe President confirmed that in pursuance of adecision taken by the Assembly at Dublin,Guatemala had been given due notice that contin-ued non-payment of subscriptions due would resultin its expulsion from the CMI at this Assembly. Nopayment or contact having been received, thePresident, with regret, moved for the expulsion ofGuatemala.The proposal was then carried by show of hands.

(e) Provisional membership The President reported that two applications forProvisional Membership had been received andconsidered by the Executive Council, who recom-mended that approval be given by the Assembly.

(i) Theis Klauberg (Latvia) Carried by a show of hands, and congratula-

tions offered to Mr Klauberg who was attending theConference.

(ii) Kwabena Asare (Ghana)Carried by show of hands, and congratulations

offered to Mr Asare who was attending theConference.

(f) Proposed expulsionsThe President informed the Assembly that twoNMLAs were in long term and continuing defaultand invited the Assembly to resolve to place them inline for expulsion at the 2015 Assembly, neither ofthem having responded to correspondence in thepast or participated in the CMI for some years. Dr José Modesto Apolo Teràn (Ecuador) asked foran explanation of the process of expulsion. Heenquired whether if the default is perhaps evidencedby unanswered letters, could there be valid reasonssuch as misdirection of mails? The Presidentexplained that the consequence of the resolution toplace an NMLA in line for expulsion is that a finaldemand letter is sent to the defaulter, notifyingthem of the motion to expel for continuing non-pay-ment. But before this step, numerous attemptswould have been made by the subscription collec-tion committee of Chris Davis and Jorge Radovich(and Karl-Johan Gombrii in the past), to make con-tact and ascertain if the defaulting NMLA has pay-ment problems or are perhaps defunct. Those whoanswer the CMI’s final demands are at liberty tonegotiate a settlement of their outstanding accountfor good reasons given. The CMI is always open toreasonable discussion, and the process to expel isthe end of the line where no other alternatives pre-sent themselves.The President then moved for expulsion proceed-ings be commenced against

(i) Pakistan; and(ii) Bulgaria

for resolution by the 2015 Assembly in the absenceof their debts being paid.Carried by a show of hands.

8. Amendments to the Constitution

The President tabled and proposed an amendmentto Article, 8(d) and 15 of the Constitution. The import of the amendments were, in relation toArt 8, to make reference to the changed descriptionof the Treasurer to “Treasurer and Head OfficeDirector”; and in relation to Art 15 to tidy up thenomination process to require the Chair of theNominating Committee first to ascertain whetherCouncillors eligible for re-election are available, andwhether NMLAs wish to propose any candidate forpossible nomination by the Nominating Committeebefore the Nominating Committee seeks the viewsof NMLAs on candidates. The time limits forresponses are also changed. Dr José Modesto Apolo Teràn (Ecuador) ques-tioned the process adopted by the NominationsCommittee in naming only one name per vacancy,because this makes it appear there can be no vote inthe Assembly.

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The Secretary-General responded by confirmingthat nomination from the floor was always possible,upon due notice given in terms of the Constitution,and that in such event the Assembly would be invit-ed to vote upon competing candidates. However heacknowledged that the nomination and electionprocess needs in present times to be (and be per-ceived to be) fully transparent and that, in anattempt to address undoubted concerns and percep-tions, he has submitted to EXCO a more generaland wider amendment of Article 15 for considera-tion by the Constitution Committee and referral indue course to EXCO and the Assembly.The Secretary-General had asked leave to join theConstitution Committee, which was agreed byEXCO at its Hamburg meeting. The amendment as tabled was proposed byArgentina, seconded by Belgium and carried byshow of hands.

9. Work in Progress

The President invited reports from the Chairs ofCMI International Working Groups and StandingCommittees. Reports were duly tabled and present-ed thus:

(a) Acts of Piracy and Maritime ViolenceAndrew Taylor tabled and presented a piracyupdate, reporting a continuing drop in Somali pira-cy, but a worrying increase in piracy of a more vio-lent nature in the Gulf of Guinea. He reported theincreasing use of GuARDCON as the industry stan-dard for on board security, which has had 100%effectiveness in warding off attacks. But Mr Taylorechoed the caution of the IMB that there can be noroom for complacency.

(b) Fair Treatment of SeafarersKiran Khosla tabled and presented Olivia Murray’sreport on the Fair Treatment of Seafarers, recordingthat Kate Lewins had joined the IWG. Ms Khoslareported observer attendance at the 101st Session ofthe Legal Committee of the IMO and efforts thereto encourage the IMO to promote implementationof the Fair Treatment Guidelines. The report out-lined current work, including continuing coopera-tion with Seafarers’ Rights International in whichthe CMI is involved with a joint project to ascertainand encourage more widespread acceptance of theFair Treatment Guidelines by the use of question-naires and direct enquiry.

(c) Recognition of Foreign Judicial Sales of ShipsChair Prof Henry Li reported the outcome of theCMI Plenary session held before the HamburgAssembly. He recorded that after debate, thePlenary had adopted the text of the DraftInternational Convention on Foreign Judicial Salesof Ships and their Recognition. Prof Li was invitedby the President to propose the text of the instru-ment for adoption by the Assembly.

The proposal was thus made by China and secondedby Australia/New Zealand. Put to the vote, therewere 23 acceptances - from the NMLAs of Argentina,Australia/New Zealand, Belgium, Canada, China,Democratic Republic of Korea, Denmark, Finland,France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan,Malta, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Spain, Sweden,Switzerland, Turkey, united Kingdom and absten-tions from the united States (who indicated that theirdelegation declined to vote because they had no man-date from their MLA board to vote, but that theywould recommend acceptance to their board, theuSA delegates present indicating that they were per-sonally in favour of the instrument), Brazil andPoland. There were no votes against.

[Subsequent to the Assembly meeting, the President ofthe MLAUS has confirmed to the Secretary-Generalthat the board of the MLAUS, at its August 2014Seattle meeting, resolved to support the adoption ofthe instrument. This vote in favour, brings the totalacceptances of the draft to 24, with two abstentions.]

The President commended Prof Li and his team forthe enormous amount of work done to arrive at theadoption of the text of the draft convention, andthis acclaim was echoed by all present.

(d) Marine InsuranceDieter Schwampe tabled and presented the reportof the Marine Insurance IWG. He reported that thescope of the remit of the IWG is continually nar-rowing and that it now focuses on only four aspects– summarised on the last page of the report asincluding:• The recommendation that national governments

require insurers to provide confirmation thatcover provided is at least for minimum conven-tion requirements;

• That the IMO extend the Bunker Conventionfinancial security requirements to other conven-tion security requirements.

• That the IWG does not proceed with attempts toharmonize time limits for direct actions againstinsurers at this stage.

• That the IWG be authorised by EXCO to putout a questionnaire to NMLAs on practices andprocedures in the case of termination of insur-ance cover. He reported that EXCO had agreedthat the IWG proceed with such questionnaire,and that consideration be given as to whetheramendments to current PSC/Mou systems are inneed of amendment.

(e) Cross-border InsolvencyChris Davis tabled and presented the report of theCross Border Insolvency IWG and reported that theIWG had held discussions in Hamburg. Work onthe topic, which remained relevant in internationalshipping circles, has continued. There has been anevaluation of the 15 replies received on the May2012 Questionnaire, and the IWG is now reviewing

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the best way forward to promote reform and har-monisation of law and international practices, andwill report further to EXCO.

(f) Polar Shipping (formerly Arctic/Antarctic LegalRegimes)

Aldo Chircop, newly appointed Chair of the IWG,presented his report, paying tribute to NigelFrawley, his predecessor, who has fortunatelyagreed to remain on the Group. The IWG heldmeetings in Hamburg, and members of the grouppresented sessions on certain aspects of PolarShipping. The ongoing work of the IWG is outlinedon the annexure to Prof Chircop’s report. Its focusincludes developing an inventory of initiatives ofinternational organisations in relation to the regula-tory regime in polar waters; a review of internation-al private and public maritime law conventions toconsider applicability to polar environments; andan evaluation of pollution liability regimes applica-ble to polar regions.The President thanked Prof Chircop for havingtaken over the Chair of the IWG, and for the mostinteresting and informed presentations on polarshipping at the Hamburg Conference.

(g) Review of the Rules on General AverageTaco van der Valk presented the report of the IWGon General Average, which had been the subject ofa more detailed report at a session during the semi-nar in Hamburg.

(h) Rotterdam RulesTomotaka Fujita as Chair, tabled and presented thereport of the IWG on the Rotterdam Rules. Hereported that there have been three ratifications –Congo, Spain and Togo. He reported that there aremoves afoot in other countries to ratify, includingsome European countries.Prof Fujita reported further that the African region-al economic community (CEMAC) has used theRules as a model law and incorporated the terms ofthe Rules into the CEMAC Merchant Marine Code.Prof Fujita had heard also that the Rules were now“on the uSA Secretary of State’s desk” which wasperhaps an indication of some movement of theRules in the uSA.The report of the IWG makes reference also to theuNCITRAL Working Group IV on ElectronicCommerce on which the CMI has been representedby observers Alexander von Ziegler in Zurich andMessrs Foley and Nolan in New york.

(i) Offshore Activities - Pollution Liability andrelated issues

Patrick Griggs, Chair, tabled and presented thereport of the IWG on Offshore Activities. The activ-ities of the IWG have focussed mainly on the ques-tionnaire sent out to NMLAs in July 2013 to whichthere have to date been 17 replies. Mention wasmade of the precedent of the bilateral agreement

between Mexico and the uSA which may serve as auseful precedent for the CMI. Mr Griggs referredthe Assembly to the publication of an IDDRI studyentitled “Seeing beyond the horizon of deepwateroil and gas: strengthening the international regula-tion of offshore exploration and exploitation” whichwill be of great use to the CMI. Reference was alsomade to the CMI observations at the 101st Sessionof the Legal Committee of the IMO at which issuesrelating to transboundary pollution from offshoreactivities was raised.A supplementary memo was also tabled by ChairPatrick Griggs. The report recorded the participa-tion of the CMI observers at the IMO LegalCommittee meeting in London in April 2014 andthat the IMO had expressed a preference for bi-lat-eral and regional agreements rather than interna-tional convention regulation. It recorded that allpresent at the Legal Committee had been of theview that further work needs to be undertaken. TheCMI observers reported to the Legal Committeethat the CMI had sent out a questionnaire, but thatto date there has been limited reply. In his report tothe Assembly Patrick Griggs also referred to his per-ception that industry may be coming round to theview that a voluntary regime (similar to TOVALOPand others) may be necessary.

(j) Arbitration Luc Grellet as Chair of the ad hoc Working Groupon Arbitration delivered a report from the floor. Hereferred to exchanges between himself, Vincent deOrchis, Leo Kailas, Liz Burrell and David Martowskiwhich had been put before EXCO. The essence ofthis exchange was the conclusion that “the CMI isuniquely suited to promote uniform internationalmaritime arbitral practice and procedure, and thatan important first step would be an impartial andexpert review/comparison of the various fora”. LucGrellet confirmed that his Committee would beworking further considering the matter, and wouldreport to the November meeting of the ExecutiveCouncil.

10. Standing Committees

(a) Jurisprudence on Maritime ConventionsTaco van der Valk reported that this project hasbeen on hold since March but that discussions wereunder way to determine the best way forward.EXCO had resolved not to renew the contract ofMs Audile Plegat when it expired in March 2014.Ms Plegat had developed good contacts with a num-ber of MLAs, assembled some cases, and carried outan investigation as to the most appropriate means toreconstruct the data base on the website, includingthe significant collection of judgments prepared byProf Francesco Berlingieri which had been handedover to CMI and is now on the website. Issuesunder debate concern whether the database is for-matted so that it becomes fully searchable, andwhether English casenotes should be added.

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Original texts are in their language of source.The Secretary-General reported that the ManagementCommittee had discussed ways forward for this initia-tive and had resolved to approach Prof StephenGirvin of the National university of Singapore toascertain his willingness to drive the project from aSingapore base. Prof Girvin (who was attending theHamburg proceedings) has expressed positive indica-tions, but acceptable details now need to be discussedbetween him and the CMI. The Administrator hasbeen asked by EXCO to take this further, in consulta-tion with Taco van der Valk.

(b) Promoting Ratification of Maritime ConventionsDeucalion Rediadis as Rapporteur of this Committeereported that the CMI awaits responses to the ques-tionnaire sent out during the past year and that onceresponses are received, an analysis will be done andpresented to the 2015 Assembly. This project ties inwell with the IMO’s theme for 2014 which wasdeclared to be the promotion of the implementationof existing conventions.Mr Rediadis confirmed that this Standing Committeewould now combine with the other conventionsWorking Group formerly led by Prof FrancescoBerlingieri.

(c) Young CMITaco van der Valk as Chair of the StandingCommittee on young CMI tabled and presented hisreport of the Committee’s considerable efforts duringthe past year, culminating in the cooperation ofyoung CMI with the young Maritime LawyersGroup (Belgian, British, Dutch, French and Germanyoung maritime lawyers) during and before theHamburg Conference, when each were to attend thedeliberations of the other. This was considered to bea valuable exchange.Taco van der Valk was commended for his driving ofyoung CMI and its related projects such as the con-vening speakers at CMI events and CMI on LinkedIn.

(d) Constitution CommitteeThe Treasurer as Chair of the Standing Committeeon the Constitution, confirmed the deliberations ofthe Committee over the past year, and to theamendments referred to in para 8 of these Minutes.He reported that the last revision of the constitutiondates back to Singapore and that the Committeehad begun the process of reviewing the text andclearing any anomalies. Part of this would involvechecking the English text against the French and therenumbering of articles, possibly making Art 3 aseparate part of the Constitution. The nominationand election process will also be reviewed, and theCommittee will report further to EXCO and to thenext Assembly.

(e) General Average Interest ratesTaco van der Valk, on behalf of Bent Nielsen, Chairof this Standing Committee explained that the york

Antwerp Rules require the Assembly to fix the GAinterest rate for the ensuing year. The Committeerecommended a continuation of the present rate of2.75% for 2015 but as it is early in the year to antici-pate a fair and reasonable rate for 2015 adjustments,he asked the Assembly to delegate to EXCO thepower to vary the GA rate for 2015, upon any laterrecommendation of the Standing Committee. A proposal was tabled to this effect, which was pro-posed by Germany, seconded by Ireland, and car-ried by a show of hands.

11. Publications: Yearbook and Newsletter;LinkedIn, website and Handbook on MaritimeConventions

Vice-President Giorgio Berlingieri reported thatwork was already in hand for the next CMINewsletter which will be on the CMI site soon.Proceedings of the Dublin Symposium and prepara-tory documentation for the Hamburg proceedingswill be included in the 2014 yearbook. The remain-der of the Hamburg proceedings will be in the 2015yearbook. The President reported that there had been limitedprogress on the CMI Handbook on MaritimeConventions, and that EXCO had tasked theSecretary-General with following up this projectwith Frank Wiswall, with whom he has recentlybeen in contact.The Secretary-General reported that as an experi-ment, all the presentations in Hamburg (excludingthe Conference, Plenary and Assembly) had beenrecorded by video and audio, and that after editing,all would be made available initially on theConference website and then transferred to the CMIsite. If considered useful by NMLAs, this couldbecome a regular feature of CMI events, making theproduct of its research and the collective expertiseof delegates available to the broader CMI member-ship. Similarly, all speakers’ papers and presenta-tions would be uploaded to the Conference site assoon as possible.

12. 2015 Colloquium and 2016 Conference

(a) Colloquium in 2015 – IstanbulThe President reported the set-back of arrange-ments which had recently taken place owing to con-cerns expressed by the then President of theTurkish MLA on the security and political stabilityof Turkey. There has since been a change in leader-ship of that association. The new leadership hadexpressed confidence in the suitability and ability ofTurkey to host the 2015 Assembly and Symposium. Vice-President Chris Davis had recently visitedIstanbul and had conferred with the Turkish MLA.He had presented favourable reports to EXCOwhich now sought confirmation of the decision tohold the 2015 event in Istanbul. The formerPresident has now expressed his full support for theholding of the 2015 Symposium in Istanbul.

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The President invited the Turkish delegation, com-prising Prof Didem Light, Mr Sertaç Sayhan and MsBahar Sayhan to make a short presentation, at theend of which the Assembly affirmed the decisiontaken at Dublin to hold the 2015 Colloquium inIstanbul.

(b) Conference 2016 - New YorkMLA uS President Bob Clyne reported to theAssembly that arrangements were proceeding apacefor the holding of the CMI 2016 Conference con-currently with the MLAuS Spring meeting in thefirst week of May 2016. Vincent Foley is chairingCMI 2016 New york organising Committee whichhas already engaged extensively with the Presidentand the Secretary-General and Vice-President ChrisDavis. A meeting of the MLAuS and the CMI teamhad been held in Hamburg prior to the Assembly.The President confirmed that the Hilton Hotel inNew york has been chosen as the Conferencevenue, and the organising committee has com-menced discussions on the likely work programmewith the Secretary-General. This will hopefullyinclude the culmination of the Review of the yorkAntwerp Rules, which the Secretary-General sug-gested may well lead to the New york AntwerpRules, 2016.

13. CMI Regional Office in SingaporeThe Administrator reported that the registration ofthe representative office of the CMI in Singaporehad been renewed for a further year to 25 April2015. He reported that the CMI had received anapproach from the uNCITRAL Regional Centre forAsia and the Pacific (RCAP) who wish to increaselevels of coordination and cooperation with theCMI in Asia.  It has singled out in particular theRotterdam Rules as something on which it is keen toset-up a regional expert group.  It has suggested thata meeting of the regional expert group could takeplace around the time of the Singapore MLA’s year-ly Asian Maritime Law Conference next spring.The Administrator confirmed that EXCO had givenhim the go-ahead to cooperate with RCAP and indi-cated that such an initiative would be in accord withand serve the continuation of the defined ‘Activities’of the CMI Regional Office registration as definedby the office of International Enterprise inSingapore. The Administrator also confirmed thathe will take the opportunity of visits to countries inSouth East Asia, where there is no MLA, to meetwith practitioners and encourage them to formMLAs.

14. CMI – The Future

The President tabled Liz Burrell’s preliminaryreport as chair of the Ad hoc Committee on theFuture Role of the CMI in which Ms Burrell report-ed that there had been a number of contacts

between members of the committee which has iden-tified a number of issues (listed in the report). Thecommittee is still deliberating these issues and isexamining ways of collecting input from CMI mem-bers. It has no recommendations to proffer at thisstage.

15. Planning Committee

The Secretary-General as chair of the PlanningCommittee reported limited contact between mem-bers of the Committee since Dublin, but waspleased to report that Prof Michael Sturley hadjoined the Committee. This was considered by theCommittee to be a useful step in working with theMLAuS towards 2016 New york. Only four mem-bers of the Committee are attending Hamburg, andthus a full meeting had not been possible during theHamburg week.Regarding matters on the CMI future work pro-gramme, the Planning Committee has been in dis-cussions with Prof Eric van Hooydonk in connec-tion with his proposed project for the CMI toattempt a Restatement of the General Principles ofMaritime Law. EXCO had agreed that the projectcould proceed, and that an Ad hoc IWG will beestablished. The Secretary-General and Alex vonZiegler were tasked with setting up an initial IWGwith Prof van Hooydonk to decide the way forward,and especially to advise EXCO on the broader com-position of the group.Other matters brought to the attention of the com-mittee concern aspects of collision law, a possiblerevival of CMI efforts in relation to ship breaking,and the increase in actions against shipowners andtheir vessels in claims against charterers. ThePlanning Committee took note of the decision takenat Beijing that it should make full reports toConferences of the CMI every three to four years,and it aims to deliberate before, during and afterIstanbul, and then to present a full report to theNew york Assembly.

16. D&O InsuranceThe President reported that the CMI had obtained

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€1m cover from AIG for the CMI’s Directors’ andOfficers’ Liability Insurance and a summary of thecover had been prepared by him. If anyone wishedto see the extent of the cover they should apply tohim or the Treasurer.

17. ElectionsThe President tabled the report of the Chairman ofthe Nominating Committee. That report recom-mended the election of officers as follows:(i) John Hare as Secretary-General (ii) Jorge Radovich for a second term as Executive

Councillor(iii) Ann Fenech as Executive Councillor.The Secretary-General confirmed that there hadbeen no other nominations received for any of theabove offices, and the President therefore declaredall three nominees duly elected to office.The Assembly congratulated those elected by accla-mation.

18. Any other businessThe delegates from the IIDM as Consultative mem-bers of the CMI extended an invitation to membersof the CMI to their forthcoming Conference inLisbon from 18 to 22 November 2014.

Closing remarks

The President thanked the Deutscher Verein fürInternationales Seerecht (DVIS) and its organisingcommittee for hosting an enjoyable and successfulConference, culminating in the adoption of the textof the Judicial Sales instrument. In addition hethanked all presenters of papers, Brands Alive andtheir team of Professional Conference Organisers,the audio visual teams and others who had con-tributed to the success of Hamburg 2014.There being no other business the meeting closed at16h35.

STuART HETHERINGTON JOHN HARE

President Secretary-General

Country Name

ARGENTINA Jorge RadovichElias Bestani

AuSTRALIA & Matthew HarveyNEWZEALAND Neil Beadle

Frazer Hunt

BELGIuM Marc A. HuybrechtsFrank Stevens

BRAZIL Pedro Calmon FilhoCamilla MendesVianna Cardoso

CANADA John G. O'connorWilliam SharpePeter J. Cullen

CHINA Chen MinXing NaiqunHenry Hai Li

CROATIA Igor Vio

DENMARK Alex Laudrup

ECuADOR Javier CardosoJose M. Apolo

FRANCE Luc Grellet Cécile Bellord Patrice Rembauville-Nicolle

GERMANy Klaus RammingDieter SchwampeJan-Erik Pötschke

GREECE Grigorios TimagenisIoannis Markianos-DaniolosDeucalion Rediadis

INDIA V. J. Mathew

IRELAND Paul GillEdmund SweetmanEamonn Magee

ISRAEL Peter Gad Naschitz

ITALy Giorgio Berlingieri Paolo TurciAntonella Turci

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Country Name

JAPAN Tomotaka FujitaTetsuro NakamuraJiro Kubo

KOREA Byung Suk ChungJong Hyeon ChoiDong Hee Suh

MALTA Ann FenechNicholas Valenzia

NETHERLANDS Taco Van Der ValkReiner Van CampenHarmen Hoek

NIGERIA Louis MbanefoChidi Ilogu

NORWAy Erik Røsæg Andrew Meidell

PERu Katerina Vuskovic

POLAND Pawel MichiewiczDarius Szymankiewicz

SPAIN Eduardo AlborsTomas Fernandez-Quiros

SWEDEN Måns Jacobsson

SWITZERLAND Alexander Von Ziegler Raphaelle Favre

TuRKEy Didem LightSertaç SayhanZ. Bahar Sayhan

uNITED KINGDOM Andrew TaylorPatrick Griggs

uNITED STATES Bob ClyneHal WatsonFrank NolanJohn KimballVincent FoleyHoward Mccormack

ANNEX A

List of attendees

1. Composition of the Audit Committee

Liz Burrell’s resignation from the Audit Committeewas noted, with appreciation for her considerableefforts in the past. It was proposed and agreed thatMåns Jacobsson be appointed to Chair the AuditCommittee.The President raised the question of whether thecomposition of the Audit Committee should bechanged so that no serving Councillors serve on theAudit Committee. This proposal was supported byKarl-Johan Gombrii, though Alex von Zieglerexpressed the view that the President should serveon the Audit Committee, (which he is entitled tounder the Constitution as an ex officio member). Itwas decided to defer the decision and its effect tothe November EXCO meeting to enable thePresident to discuss the composition of the AuditCommittee further with Mans Jacobsson.

2. CMI Charitable Trust

The appointment of Stuart Hetherington and AnnFenech as trustees was noted, as was the resignationof Charles Goldie.

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3. Other Business

(a) Judicial Sales InstrumentThere was discussion on how the Judicial SalesInstrument, approved by the Assembly, should pro-ceed. The Treasurer reported that one possibilitywas for submission to the Eu, as there is a jurisdic-tion provision, and member states of the Eu haveeffectively signed over their jurisdiction to the Eu inrelation to matters raised in the Instrument. Itcould also be submitted, inter alia, to the LegalCommittee of the IMO and to uNCITRAL.Benoit Goemans, Alex von Ziegler and DihuangSong volunteered to form a committee to plan andrecommend the way forward for the VirtualCommittee Meeting in November 2014.

(b) Ratification of ConventionsTomotaka Fujita reported that he was in touch withuNCITRAL who have a ratification kit for develop-ing countries. He could make approaches to uNCI-TRAL in this regard.It was agreed that Prof Fujita proceed with makingcontact with uNCITRAL, but that he do so withthe involvement of Louis Mbanefo and DeucalionRediadis from the CMI Implementation Committee.

MINUTES OF THE MINUTES OF THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MEETING HELD ON 17 JUNE 2014 FROM 17H00 TO 17H45

AT THE ATLANTIC HOTEL, HAMBURG, GERMANY

Welcome

The President welcomed Councillors to the meeting, especially the newest member and congratulated Ann Fenech on her election, and Jorge Radovich on his re-election, as Councillors;

and John Hare on his election as Secretary-General.

Present

President: STuART HETHERINGTON

Vice-Presidents: GIORGIO BERLINGIERI

CHRISTOPHER DAVIS

Secretary-General: JOHN HARE

Administrator: LAWRENCE TEH

Treasurer/(Head Office Director): BENOIT GOEMANS

Councillors: ANN FENECH

TOMOTAKA FuJITA

LOuIS MBANEFO

JORGE RADOVICH

ANDREW TAyLOR

DIHuANG SONG

DIETER SCHWAMPE

ALEXANDER VON ZIEGLER

Apologies

Past-President: KARL-JOHAN GOMBRII

(c) Classification SocietiesThe Secretary-General reported on the considerablepositive response that had come in after the Hamburgpresentations on Classification Society liability, andthat all the responses seemed to support a revival ofthe CMI initiative for the international regulation ofthe liability of classification societies and its limitation. It was decided that an Ad hoc Committee be estab-lished to examine the extent to such support and toassess whether a CMI initiative was warranted. TheSecretary-General was tasked with convening thiscommittee.

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Next Meeting:

The Virtual meeting to be conducted during theweek commencing 24 November 2014 was con-firmed. There being no further business, the meeting endedat 1745.

STuART HETHERINGTON JOHN HARE

President Secretary-General

NEWS FROM INTERGOVERNMENTAL AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

NEWS FROM IMO

REPORT ON THE IMO LEGAL COMMITTEE, 101ST SESSION, APRIL 28TH TO MAY 2ND, 2014

In opening the session the Secretary-General madespecific reference to the recent tragic accidentinvolving the ferry Sewol in the Republic of Korea.A one minute silence was observed in honour of thevictims.

The HNS Convention 2010 – implementation

Delegates were reminded of the Guidelines onreporting of HNS contributing cargo which had beenproduced by a Workshop held in November 2012.These had been designed to help member statesdraw up their own regulations. The Committee urged Member States, once again,to ratify this convention as soon as possible. TheCanadian delegation introduced document LEG101/3 which referred to an informal meeting of 26states in London in October 2013, the constitutionof an informal correspondence group and the cre-ation by the IOPC Funds of its HNS Blog. TheCanadian delegate proposed that the HNSCorrespondence Group should be reconstituted. After some discussion it was agreed that theCorrespondence Group would be reconstitutedunder the chairmanship of Francois Marier(Canada). use of the HNS Protocol Blog as a meansof communication was encouraged. The Canadian delegation then introduced documentLEG 101/3/1 which gave details of the steps takenby the Canadian Government to implement theHNS Convention. They anticipate that the regula-tions for implementation will shortly be in place andthe calendar year for collecting data on contributingcargo will commence. The German delegation then introduced documentLEG 101/3/2 in which they questioned whetherStates Parties to the Convention can provide in their

domestic law that shipowners from States not partyto the Convention should have unlimited liability. Following discussion the Committee agreed thatStates party to the HNS Convention could not intheir domestic law distinguish between ships fromstate parties and from no-state parties to theConvention. Therefore, shipowners from States thatare not a party to the Convention will be able tolimit their liability in States which are a party to it.

Fair Treatment of Seafarers in the event of a maritime accident

The Secretariat introduced document LEG 101/4which provided an update on reported incidentssince the previous meeting. A representative of Seafarers’ Rights International(SRI) on behalf of International Workers Federation(ITF), the International Federation of Shipmasters’Assocs. (IFSMA) and Comité MaritimeInternational (CMI) introduced document LEG101/4/1 which summarised the responses to a ques-tionnaire concerning the implementation of the2006 Guidelines on the fair treatment of seafarers inthe event of a maritime accident. The representative of the Islamic Republic of Iranonce more raised the vexed question of the right ofseafarers to enjoy shore leave and he reminded theCommittee of Assembly resolution A.1090(28) underwhich shore leave was recognised as a right and notjust a privilege. He expressed the hope that this reso-lution would be incorporated in the FAL Convention.

Piracy

The Secretariat introduced documents LEG 101/5and 101/INF.2 reporting on the activities of the

Contact Group on Piracy off the coast of Somalia(CGPCS). Attention was drawn to the KampalaProcess and the development of a three-year trainingplan to assist Somalia to develop legal capacity to dealwith maritime crime and to establish a coastguard/maritime police force. Reference was also made to theregular use of Privately Contracted Armed SecurityPersonnel (PCASP) and delegates were reminded ofthe Guidelines which apply to their operations. It was noted that CGPCS will, in future, only meeton an ad hoc basis, as a when required. Generally, it was agreed that piracy, wherever itoccurs, is a matter to be dealt with by IMO whichwould continue to support efforts to combat piracy.

Technical cooperation related to maritime legislation

The Secretariat is implementing the IntegratedTechnical Cooperation Programme (ITCP) whichaims to assist Member states in drafting, updatingand bringing into force primary and secondary mar-itime legislation in relation to IMO instruments.Finding experts to assist with this work is not easybut the Secretariat has been exploring ways in whichthe knowledge of IMLI (Malta) –graduates might beharnessed. A short guide has been prepared by theSecretariat highlighting the common elements of atypical national maritime policy. Mrs. Gabriele Goettsche-Wanli from the Divisionfor Ocean Affairs on the Law of the Sea (DOALOS)spoke about the role of her organisation in thedevelopment of national maritime legislation.

IMO International Maritime Law Institute (IMLI)

LEG 101/7/1 provides a report on the Institute’sactivities in 2013. Reference was made to the IMLIManual on International Maritime Law which ithopes to publish before the end of 2014 covering allaspects of international maritime law and written byinternational experts in each field. In April 2013, 34 students graduated and by the endof the current academic year a total of 638 studentsfrom 130 States and territories will have attendedIMLI courses. The delegate from the CMI congratulated ProfessorAttard and the Institute on its 25th birthday andexpressed his belief that the Institute was doing anexcellent job and should be supported and encour-aged in its work. (On the afternoon of Monday April 28th an eventwas held at IMO Headquarters to celebrate the 25thanniversary of the founding of IMLI. Speakersincluded the Secretary-General of IMO and Dr.Frank Wiswall (IMLI Governing Board and Vice-President Honoris Causa, CMI).

Status of Conventions

The Secretariat introduced documents LEG 101/3and 101WP.2 containing the latest information

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regarding entry into force of conventions and otherinstruments emanating from the Legal Committee. Document LEG 101/8/1 was then introduced inwhich the Secretariat invited the Committee to con-sider a number of IMO conventions which have yetto come into force and delegates were asked to lookcarefully at the situation in their own state. The Committee noted that the Athens Protocol2002 entered into force on April 23rd 2014 and thatthe WRC (Nairobi) 2007 has met its entry into forcerequirements and will enter into force international-ly on April 14th 2015. Delegates were reminded thatwhen ratifying the Athens Protocol 2002 states mustdenounce the 1974 Athens Convention. Several delegations took the opportunity of advisingthe Committee of the progress which their govern-ments were making in implementing the WRC 2007,SuA 2005, Athens 2002, Ballast Water Management2004, Hong Kong Ship Recycling, BunkersConvention 2001, Limitation Convention 1996 andHNS 2010. The International Group of P.& I. Clubs introduceddocument LEG 101/8/3 in which it urged memberstates to the Athens Convention 2002 to accept the2006 Resolution addressing the problem of insur-ance cover for acts of terrorism. Without the adop-tion of this Resolution member states risked theunintended consequence of preventing passengership operators from obtaining the necessary certifi-cation to enable them to trade. The International Group also introduced documentLEG 101/8/4 in which it reminded member statesthat if they do not exercise the option contained inArticle 3.2 to extend the scope of the Convention totheir territory including their territorial sea they willbe unable to rely on the insurance certificates forincidents occurring within the territory and theirterritorial sea. Since most troublesome wrecks arelikely to be located within the territory or territorialsea, failure to “opt-in” will largely negate the pur-pose of the Convention. The representative of the CMI introduced docu-ment LEG 101 8/5 on the joint initiative by CMIand ICS to persuade governments to ratify a list ofimportant conventions. The Committee welcomedthis initiative.

Any other business

The Indonesian Government again raised the issueof liability and compensation for transboundary pol-lution from offshore exploration and exploitationactivities. The Committee was reminded of its decision totackle this problem by developing guidance to assistStates interested in pursuing bi-lateral or regionalagreements rather than by developing an interna-tional convention. A call had been made by theSecretariat for details of existing bi-lateral andregional agreements but there had been very littleresponse.

All delegations who spoke expressed their concernover this problem and recognised that further workneeded to be undertaken. The observer delegation of CMI informed theCommittee that it had sent out a questionnaire to itsaffiliated national maritime law associations toascertain which states were parties to international,regional of bi-lateral agreements on pollution fromoffshore activities. Responses had been receivedfrom 20 states. The matter is to be discussed furtherat the CMI Conference in Hamburg in June 2014when a decision will be made as to how this mattercan be taken forward. The Committee’s attentionwas also drawn to a report, published in February2014 by the Institute for Sustainable Developmentand International Relations (IDDRI) entitled“Seeing beyond the horizon for deepwater oil andgas: strengthening the international regulation ofoffshore exploration and exploitation”. Referencewas also made to the Maastricht university Study(funded by the European Commission) and recentlypublished which looks at the whole subject of off-shore activities and the possibility of creating a lia-bility and compensation regime for the Eu. Indonesia was encouraged to continue its interses-sional work on the subject and the Committee wel-comed the proposal to create a website which couldact as a clearing house for any data collected. By Circular Letter No. 3145 notice was given of theadoption of Guidelines for accepting documentationfrom insurance companies, financial security providersand P&I Clubs in relation to CLC and HNSConvention certificates. In LEG 101/11/2 it was pro-posed that the Guidelines should be extended tocover WRC 2007 certificates. Whilst this proposalwas generally welcomed and will be implemented bymeans of a further Circular Letter, one delegationsuggested that the Guidelines were unclear in certainrespects and needed to be reviewed in light of experi-ence to date. This was agreed and a review will beincluded in the Committee’s future work programme. The observer delegation of the InternationalChamber of Shipping introduced documentLEG101/11/4 which was a joint submission withthe International Group of P&I Clubs, the

26

International union of Marine Insurance and theInternational Salvage union. These organisationsdrew delegates attend to the fact that the Guidelineson maritime assistance service (MAS) were not work-ing as ships in distress were continuing to be refusedaccess to a place of refuge. Reference was made tothe problems recently encountered by the owners ofthe Maritime Maisie. It was recognised that therewas no obligation on a state to grant access to aplace of refuge was but more needed to be done toimprove the present situation. One delegationpointed out that it would make life easier forshipowners and states if the various conventions onliability and compensation which had been agreedin recent years had achieved wider ratification. The CMI observer delegation stated that it hadbecome apparent that the Guidelines were notworking as intended. He reminded delegates that atLEG 92 CMI had submitted a draft Convention onPlaces of Refuge. He suggested that if theGuidelines continued to be ignored in practice theCommittee might need to consider, again, whetherthere was a need to impose an obligation on states(with reservations) to grant refuge. The Committee concluded that the ratification andeffective implementation of the various liability andcompensation conventions already in existencewould make it much easier for states faced with arequest for access to a place of refuge to a ship indistress to accept that request.

ILO’s Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC2006)

The delegate from ILO introduced document LEG101/11/3 which reports on the entry into force ofthis Convention on August 20th 2013. The practicalaspects of application of this convention will bemonitored by the Special Tripartite Committee. The meeting was concluded.

PATRICK GRIGGS

CMI delegate to IMO Legal Committee meetings

May 20th 2014

The Governing Bodies of the 1971 and 1992 Fundswere held at IMO from 6-9 May 2104. Rosalie Balkin attended on behalf of the CMI. Thefollowing is a summary of the most interesting agen-da items. A full report may be found at documentIOPC/May 14/10/1, dated 9 May 2014.

Quorum

As has been the position for many sessions, too fewstates attended to achieve the necessary quorum forthe 1992 Fund Assembly and, accordingly, in linewith Resolution No 7, the 1992 FundAdministrative Council conducted the proceedingson behalf of the Fund Assembly.

Winding up of the 1971 Fund

undoubtedly, the most interesting agenda item wasthe winding up of the 1971 Fund. In this connec-tion, while the 1971 Fund Convention had ceased tobe in force since 24 May 2002, and did not apply toincidents occurring after that date, nevertheless, thisdid not result in the winding-up of the 1971 Fundwhich, pursuant to article 44 of the Convention, stillcontinued to meet its obligations in relation to pre-existing incidents. At the previous (October 2013) session, an in prin-ciple decision had been taken to wind the 1971Fund up at the October 2014 session, and to thisend the Director had been instructed to study thelegal implications and to resolve as many of the fiveoutstanding incidents as possible. The Director reported that, with regard to theVistabella incident, following an out-of-court settle-ment with the insurer to contribute towards pay-ment of the latter’s costs, the Fund had withdrawnits appeal to the Privy Council, and the matter wasnow resolved. The Aegean Sea incident had also been resolved fol-lowing payment to the claimants by the SpanishGovernment of the damages awarded by the court,in line with that Government’s previous undertak-ing. However, the Director has thus far failed to reach asettlement with the shipowner’s insurer (the Northof England’s P&I Club) regarding the incidentinvolving the Iliad and was instructed by theAdministrative Council to continue his efforts to doso before October 2014, at which date negotiationsshould be terminated. There is scant likelihood of settling the two remain-

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ing outstanding incidents. The first of these, thePlate Princess, involves claims initially lodged in theVenezuelan courts by two fishermen’s trade unionsagainst the shipowner and Master but extended(eight years later, after they were time-barred) to the1971 Fund as an interested party. Contributionsowed by Venezuela’s State-owned oil company tothe 1992 Fund were subsequently embargoed by thecourt, even though the 1992 Fund is legally inde-pendent of the 1971 Fund. Following the decision of the AdministrativeCouncil in October 2013 to discontinue all legalrepresentation in the Venezuelan courts, the latterhad issued a request to the courts in the uK forassistance in serving the judgments against theFunds in the uK, including with regard to theembargo of assets. As at the time of the May 2014meeting, the order had not actually been served onthe Funds, but the Director has requested the assis-tance of the uK Foreign and Commonwealth Officein dealing with it. An equally intractable situation is that involving theNissos Amorgos, in which the Venezuelan SupremeCourt has upheld a judgment for compensationagainst the master, the shipowner and the GardClub. The 1971 Fund was not a party to the actionbut a request for reimbursement has since beenmade by the Gard Club. This has been denied for avariety of reasons, including that those individualsand organisations who had suffered a loss as a resultof the pollution had already been compensated bythe Gard Club and the 1971 Fund, that the claim bythe Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela had been cal-culated by the use of theoretical models and was,accordingly, not admissible, and that the claimswere time-barred. The situation has been complicated by the fact that,just prior to the May meeting, the Gard Club hadapplied to the uK High Court for a “freezinginjunction”, which was granted, preventing the 1971Fund from removing from the jurisdiction any of itsassets up to uS$ 58 million to ensure that fundsremained within the jurisdiction to satisfy theGard’s Club claim in case it proves successful. The legal basis on which the High Court hadallowed the injunction derived from its reading ofsection 6 of the International Oil PollutionCompensation Fund (Immunities and Privileges)Order 1979 which gave effect to the HeadquartersAgreement between the 1971 Fund and the uKGovernment. Although the HeadquartersAgreement (a treaty instrument) may have intendedthe property and assets of the 1971 Fund to beimmune from such an injunction, the wording used

NEWS FROM IOPC FUNDS

REPORT ON THE MAY 2014 SESSIONS OF THE IOPC FUNDS’ GOVERNING BODIES

in section 6 of the Order did not have such an effectand the Court was bound by the clear wording ofthe Order. That is to say, the immunity granted bythe Order was less extensive than under theHeadquarters Agreement but section 6 of the Ordershould nevertheless be applied without regard to thediffering text. The High Court found that, while the real issueswere likely to arise on the facts, Gard had satisfiedthe “good arguable case” threshold in respect of itsEnglish claim based on an alleged claims-handlingagreement with the 1971 Fund. The granting of the freezing injunction will not pre-vent the 1971 Fund from its day to day running ofthe 1971 Fund as it will allow the Fund to payclaims, negotiate settlements and pay reasonablelegal expenses but, pending its discharge, theinjunction will prevent the reimbursement of anysurplus monies to contributors. In light (or in spite) of the above issues, theAdministrative Council decided to continue theprocess of winding up the 1971 Fund rather than todelay the winding up until the legal proceedingswere finalized or an agreement with the Clubsreached. One issue was that there was only some 4.6 millionuK pounds remaining in the General Fund and thetwo Major Claims Funds and if litigation were tocontinue beyond the end of 2014, it was likely thatthe 1971 Fund would have to levy contributions tocontinue to operate. In this regard, whatever thedecision in the High Court on the substantive issues,it was likely to be appealed either by the 1971 Fundor by Gard, in either event an expensive process. Itwas clear from previous debates that few delegationswere in favour of any new levies for both legal andpractical reasons. The 1971 Fund administrative Council accordinglydecided to confirm its decision to dissolve the 1971Fund at its October 2014 session and to this effectadopted the May 2014 Resolution on thePreparation for the Dissolution of the InternationalOil Pollution Compensation Fund (text full text of

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which is set out at Annex II of the official report(document IOPC May 14/10/1)). At a closed session, the second draft resolution, onthe Dissolution of the International oil PollutionCompensation Fund, to be adopted in October2014, was discussed and amended, in line with dis-cussions in the open session and to take account ofthe High Court freezing injunction. The amendeddraft resolution can be found at Annex III of theofficial report (document IOPC/ May 14/10/1).

HNS Convention

The Administrative Council noted on-going work inconnection with the establishment by the secretariatof the HNS Fund and the establishment of an infor-mal correspondence group, co-ordinated byCanada, to maintain the momentum for the entryinto force of the HNS Protocol. It also noted a deci-sion of LEG 101 to formally reinstate the HNSCorrespondence Group in order to provide a moreformal forum for discussion and information shar-ing. Hopes, although not immediate expectations,are high for the eventual entry into force of this lia-bility and compensation regime, which will, once inforce, complete the cycle of liability and compensa-tion regimes adopted by IMO to regulate pollutiondamage at sea.

Guidelines for clean-up claims

Among the issues noted by the 1992 FundAdministrative Council were a new ClaimsInformation Pack that had been made available inMarch 2014 and a set of guidelines to assist stateswith the submission of claims for clean-up and pre-ventive measures (document IOPC/May 14/4/1).The guidelines are compatible with the ClaimsManual and are aimed specifically at governments aswell as clean-up operators.

ROSALIE BALKIN

CMI Observer Delegate to the IOPC Funds