Contemporary Issues in International Maritime Law Speaker: Prof. D. Rhidian Tommas of Wales University Hostess: Prof. Zhang Xianglan Date: April 15, 2004 Place: The first meeting room of Luojia Hotel Note-taking: Qiao Jing
Summary: During the three hours from 9:00 to 12:00 A.M., Mr Prof. Tommas has given us a general but vivid picture about Maritime Law, especially the contemporary issues. Before the formal speech, he mentioned something of his own learning experience. He is very modest actually, saying that there is still a big area he does not know and understanding and studentship lasts a lifetime, which has impressed us most. For the speech, firstly, Mr Prof. Tommas gave some introductory ideas about Maritime Law. He reminded us three aspects when referring to Maritime Law. 1. It is an area which has a huge common factor related to the object ship; 2.Since the area is big, he could only briefly label something of that kind; 3. The international nature of Maritime Law means that the problems arising from it are international as well as the solutions. Secondly, he lectured on some specific systems of Maritime Law. He began with a historical view. He told us, many of the systems and rules originated from customary codes of law, the essence of which is transnational. Little attention was paid to national boundary. Therefore, he emphasized the global responsibility in this area. He especially focused on some systems such as the General Average, Salvage at Sea, Collisions, Limitation of Liabilities, Ship Arrest, Maritime Law Insurance and so on, each of which he gave a plain but lively description, with some examples as well. For some, he even made comparisons with national ones, which helped a lot with our understanding. Thirdly, he talked about conventions and some important organizations in the field. Because of the nature of Maritime Law, there is an expanding number of international conventions, which have played and are still playing a critical role. In Mr Tommas’ s opinion, a lot of them are successful. With regards to the organizations, he mentioned two, one is CMI, and the other is IMO. CIM has contributed much to the concluding of many significant conventions and rules, which constitute an indispensable part of Maritime Law system. IMO, short for International Maritime Organization, is an institute of United Nations. Located in London, it mainly deals with shipping and maritime matters. And CIM usually do some collaborative and research work for it. In the end, Prof. Tommas attentively answered our questions ranging from the specific systems of Maritime Law to the legal system in United Kingdom. He explained each question we raised patiently and concretely. And the lecture finally ended with our warm applause. All of us benefited a lot.
（徐锦堂审校）