English and Continental Maritime Law: After 115 years of Maritime Law Unification: a Search for Differences between Common Law and Civil Law (Antwerp Maritime Law Series)

This volume is a collection of essays by English, Dutch and Belgian maritime law experts presented at an international seminar at the University of Antwerp. The purpose of the seminar was to discuss topics that have thus far eluded worldwide harmonisation of maritime law, an ambitious project that began in Antwerp in 1897 with the creation of the Comité Maritime International (CMI). The papers cover areas where there is still a considerable degree of difference between the two principal legal systems in the world, namely Anglo-Saxon or common law on the one hand and continental law on the other. Topics under discussion include maritime law practice, statutory rights of action in carriage of goods, the action in rem, common carriers, bailment and carriage by sea, legislative techniques in international trade, bills of lading and sea waybills, charter parties and marine insurance. Finally, the president of the CMI provides an overall perspective.