Maritime and Transport Law Committee – From the Co-Chairs – August 2024

Ulla von Weissenberg
Procopé & Hornborg Attorneys Ltd, Helsinki
ulla.weissenberg@procope.fi  

Henrik Hagberg
Advokatfirmaet Thommessen, Oslo
heh@thommessen.no  

Dear officers, members of the committee and readers of this newsletter,

We hope this message finds you well.

We have now been Co-Chairs of the IBA Maritime and Transport Law Committee for just over a year, but for the benefit of new officers and readers, we shall also use this time to briefly introduce ourselves. Ulla von Weissenberg is a partner at the Finnish law firm Procopé & Hornborg Attorneys Ltd in Helsinki. Henrik Hagberg is a partner at the Norwegian law firm Advokatfirmaet Thommessen in Oslo. Both of us have been members and officers of the committee for a number of years.

The main focus of our work last year was the IBA Annual Conference in Paris. We had four sessions with a variety of topics spanning from the decarbonisation of the maritime industry; legal questions arising in relation to the so-called 'shadow fleet'; digitalisation and cybercrime in the maritime industry; the arrest, attachment and judicial sale of vessels; and the new silk road and other hot topics in land transport. Attendance was good at all sessions.

We also had our traditional excursion with a Seine cruise, followed by lunch at Musée d'Orsay. We want to thank all the speakers and moderators for their contribution to a successful conference.

A particular thanks goes to Gauri Prabhakar, who won the Maritime and Transport Law Committee's scholarship, for her thesis on the Paris Agreement and its key implications for the transportation of goods and passengers in both the short and medium terms, and gave a presentation of her thesis at the conference. Another special thanks goes to Henri Najjar, who provided invaluable assistance in connection with the organisation of the committee's events locally in Paris.

This year, our key focus is two-fold: the IBA Maritime and Transport Law Committee Conference in Hamburg and the IBA Annual Conference in Mexico City. The IBA Maritime and Transport Law Committee Conference takes place in Hamburg on 12–14 June 2024. This is the first specialist conference for our committee since the successful specialist conference in Singapore in 2022. Registration is now open and we hope to see many of you as speakers and attendees at the conference.

The IBA Annual Conference takes place in Mexico City on 15–20 September 2024. Planning is well underway. This time, we will also have four sessions, covering topics such as decommissioning and wreck removal after the entering into force of the Hong Kong Convention 2009; the provision of evidence of the condition of cargo in cases of multi-modal container transport; and pollution liability for vessels and rigs.

We hope that many current and new members of the committee will attend both conferences and actively participate in the discussions. If you are interested in speaking or moderating any of the sessions in Mexico City, please let us know and we will see what can be done. As previously advised, the IBA has decided that committee newsletters will be available to everyone, including non-IBA members, worldwide. Our newsletter, therefore, has a much wider audience than previously. We encourage all to submit articles for the next edition to take advantage of this enhanced exposure. The next edition is planned to be published in connection with the Annual Conference in Mexico City.

Finally, for anyone who is interested in learning more about the committee's past and future activities, we recommend visiting the IBA website for the Maritime and Transport Law Committee or contact us for further information.

That's all for now. We hope to see all of you in Hamburg in June – if not before.

Ulla and Henrik