Over the last few decades, computer software and web-based operations have sparked the rise of paperless transactions, shaping how people communicate, organize information, and do business. However, the shipping industry has failed to catch on. For years now, legal maritime commentators have urged the shipping industry to embrace electronic technology expeditiously. 2 Regardless, paper documents […]
Sailing to Calmer Seas: The United Kingdom Insurance Act 2015 and Its Potential Effect on United States Marine Insurance Markets and Law
Prior to the mid-twentieth century, the seas were virtually calm in the field of marine insurance, with uniformity of law existing in both Britain and the United States. Marine insurance laws between these countries developed from English jurisprudence originating between the seventeenth and nineteenth century. However, a distinct divergence emerged after the United States Supreme […]
International Recent Developments: Australia
This Article focuses on the significant decisions that have emanated from Australian courts between November 2014 and November 2015, aside from one decision that is hot off the press at the time of writing. It aims to provide readers with an insight into Australian admiralty and maritime law and its development over this period. PURCHASE […]
Recent Developments in Admiralty and Maritime Law at the National Level and in the Fifth and Eleventh Circuits
This is the fifteenth Article in a series of annual reports on U.S. admiralty and maritime law and practice. In these articles we try to call attention to the principal national-level developments that bear on the work of admiralty judges, lawyers, and scholars, and we look more closely at the relevant work of the United […]
Organizing Marine Casualty Investigations: A “Wicked Problem” for Maritime Regulators
Technological advances in the maritime industry challenge governments’ abilities to regulate marine safety in protection of those who make a living exposed to the perils of the sea. Mobile Offshore Drilling Units exploit natural resources farther and farther from shore. Liquefied natural gas-propelled vessels under construction upend traditional safety inspector training programs. Meanwhile, Arctic drilling […]
The Fifth Circuit Holds Steady on Reasonable Notice Requirements Under the Limitation of Liability Act in In re RLB Contracting, Inc.
RLB Contracting, Inc. (RLB), owned the JONATHAN KING BOYD, a dredging vessel that was engaged in operations near Anahuac, Texas. In 2011, while on a family fishing trip, the Butler family’s boat collided with the vessel’s floating dredge pipe, violently throwing all occupants from the craft and killing twelve-year-old Sammie Butler. The Butlers filed suit […]
Taxation Without Representation: Nonresident Taxpayers Face Additional Cost of Doing Business in China as a Result of New Provisional Measures
“No taxation without representation!” This battle cry rings in the minds of many who have studied the history of the United States. In order to recoup some of the losses incurred while defending the American colonies during the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) and the French and Indian War (1754-1763), the British Parliament implemented direct taxation […]
Arrested Development: An Examination of Carriers’ Arrest Defense Under the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act and the Tort of Financial Unseaworthiness
For Thyssenkrupp Materials N.A., Inc. (Thyssenkrupp), Monday, May 7, 2012 started out as just another beautiful spring day. Thyssenkrupp had no idea that its large shipment of steel plate, scheduled to be delivered to the United States from Turkey later that month, was about to be delayed by three months due to no fault of […]
Multimillion-Dollar Commas and “Magic Words”: The In re Deepwater Horizon Additional Insured Dispute
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in April 2010 caused unprecedented and catastrophic loss to communities, economies, and the environment in the Gulf of Mexico. Amidst the sea of ensuing litigation that has focused on apportioning liability, one legal battle centered on British Petroleum’s (BP) claim to additional insured coverage under the rig-owner Transocean’s primary- and […]
Ghost Ships: Why the Law Should Embrace Unmanned Vessel Technology
Recent years have seen rapid advancement in the development and use of unmanned autonomous and semiautonomous vehicle technology, colloquially known as drones. Initial development of the technology was driven largely by military applications, but it is now being used more and more in the civilian world. Not surprisingly, one of the first civilian applications of […]