Carlo Corcione

Shipping is often considered an old-fashioned industry, averse to changes. For any company involved in the industry, however, there are events beyond the company’s influence and control, the impact of which can force the company to change its ways or adopt new strategies. No shipping company can prevent such events from occurring, thus the only viable solution is to manage the effects proactively. The entry into force of a new industry or international convention is a classic example. Such conventions impose new requirements, whose implementation, though frequently anticipated, is hard to manage in terms of timing.
The Ballast Water Management Convention is a case in point. Although being primarily technical, it brings – from a shipowner’s perspective – an abundance of strategic matters, including financial, commercial, and compliance issues.
Adherence to this convention invariably requires shipowners to invest significant amounts of money. These financial costs are exacerbated by the prolonged and ongoing systemic crises in the shipping industry, which makes it harder for shipowners to fund new investments in order to meet new requirements.
This paper therefore tackles the impact of the Ballast Water Management Convention from the perspective of shipowners attempting to manage an external event that impacts on the company’s entire strategy.

Third parties protection has been an extensive issue for the shipping
community over the last century. Although this problem has been solved to
some extent in practice by various means of circumvention created by the
industry, it remains conceptually obscure. A substantial obstacle with third
party protection is the classic perspective of contract law, which considers
a contract to be a bilateral promise between the parties. However, it can be
argued that in the modern factual context of the shipping industry, where
third parties are the pivots of the business, the reliance perspective and a
particular aspect of reliance perspective related to third parties could be
an alternative way of looking at the issue de lege ferenda

La intención de este artículo es analizar la actual situación del cálculo de indemnización como resultado de un incumplimiento en la entrega del buque y las eventuales consecuencias que el caso “The Achilleas” (en el caso que House of Lords no hubiera dado la razón a los fletadores) traería.
El artículo se limita al examen de la denuncia y al cálculo del daño por la errada entrega del buque. El artículo no examina la decisión de la House of Lords y en particular el enfoque de Lord Hoffman que tanto ha hecho discutir a la doctrina y a la jurisprudencia. Al contrario, el objetivo del artículo es evaluar la hipótesis en la cual la tesis de los armadores en el caso “The Achilleas” hubiese también ganado en el House of Lords.

The bill of lading has been one of the most contentious topics in the shipping industry for a long time now
since it concerns e-commerce and national and international legislation, as well as having the job of
matching many different interests: carriers, shippers, banks and insurance companies.
The bill of lading is not an e-commerce phenomenon having been born long before the electronic age.
However now, what Bowen LJ defined as “a key which in the hands of a rightful owner is intended to
unlock the door of the warehouse, floating or fixed, in which the goods may chance to be” has to face
both the issues of e-commerce and electronic age.
Currently, the product leading the field is ESS shipping solutions, which is experiencing substantial
success nowadays, after nearly 30 years of attempting to break into the market by other companies such
as Seadocs, Bolero and E-Title.
This paper is the result of a research on “The key of the warehouse” in the electronic age.
The writer analyses the present and future state of the bill of lading and its dematerialization, examining
the main advantages and disadvantages of the electronic bill of lading as well as some attempts to
facilitate its use in the modern trade.
It is the writer’s view that answers cannot always be obtained at the time of the research, however, the
main point is to make a contribution to knowledge in the field and to facilitate a more simple evolution of
the debate; i.e. Quo vadis Bill of Lading?

The bill of lading is not an e-commerce phenomenon having been born long before the electronic age. But now, what Bowen LJ famously described as “a key which in the hands of a rightful owner is intended to unlock the door of the warehouse, floating or fixed, in which the goods may chance to be” has to face both the issues of e-commerce and electronic age.
The bill of lading has been one of the most contentious topics in the shipping industry for a long time now since it concerns e-commerce, and national and international legislation, as well as having the job of matching many different interests: carriers, shippers, banks and insurance companies.
Currently, the plug-in product leading the field is ESS shipping solutions, which is experiencing substantial success nowadays, after nearly 30 years of attempting to break into the market by other companies.
This dissertation is the result of a research study on the legal obstacles to the use of electronic bills of lading.

China has, for better or for worse, changed the world, in just over a half century. One of their latest strategies is the Belt and Road Initiative; the project of the century as it has been defined. The project is still in a very early stage and seeing the grandeur of its aim and the involvement of innumerable players and countries, it will probably take several years to be fully implemented. Italy is one principal country that could in principle take most advantage of it, especially in sectors such as agribusiness where Italy, although being one of the world’s top countries in terms of value and quality of products, lacks the infrastructure that could boost the whole sector. The main argument of this book is that although the Belt and Road Initiative could, on balance, improve the agribusiness exportation, in order to exploit it, much remains still to be done by Italy.

This book examines third party protection in shipping. Today, shipping is not just a part of the supply chain; it is indistinguishable from it. Once at the periphery, third party protection is now a central element of carriage. This matter is addressed by means of analysis of the current legal framework in relation to third parties and an evaluation of how, within this framework, the law applicable to a third party may be uncovered.

Third party protection is analysed under the following:

    the Hague/Hague-Visby Rules;
    the Hamburg Rules;
    the Rotterdam Rules;
    English law and United States law; and
    civil law.

With its breadth of coverage and high-quality analysis, this book is vital reading for both professional and academic readers with an interest in shipping and international trade.