April
2003Document
No. 770
SPRING MEETING, NEW YORK
PRESIDENT’S WINTER/SPRING 2003 NEWSLETTER
Dear Member:
The Spring Meeting will take place in New York during
the week of April 28th, 2003, culminating with the
General Meeting of the Association on Friday morning, May 2nd,
2003.The General Meeting will take
place at 9:30 A.M. in the Great Hall at the Association of the Bar at the
City of New York, 42 West 44 Street.
There will be a black tie dinner at the Marriott
Marquis on Friday evening, May 2nd, and we hope to see a large
number of members and their guests at the dinner.
You should have received your announcement regarding
the Spring MLA week prior to receiving this Newsletter. The
announcement lists the time and place of all committee meetings and you
are encouraged to attend the meetings in which you have an interest.Making
early reservations for the dinner is of great help to the Dinner Chairman,
David Loh.
The
Young Lawyer’s Committee and the Forum of Maritime Law Teachers will present
a program on Friday afternoon, May 2nd in the Great Hall at
the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, commencing at 2:30
P.M. The lecture is entitled: “Evolution and Current Status of the MLA/COGSA
Amendments, As They Evolved Through The CMI and Uncitral.”
The
Presenters will be Past President Chester D. Hooper, Professor Joseph Sweeney
of Fordham Law School and, Professor William Tetley of McGill University.
Ed Catell of Philadelphia will be the moderator, and, CLE credits will
be given to attendees of the Program.
ADMINISTRATIVE DEVELOPMENTS
1.WEBSITE
Our Web site contains matters of current and historic
interest to Maritime Lawyers and you are invited to browse it at www.MLAUS.org.
Applications for new lawyer members and non-lawyers are available on the
Web site.
SENATE
BILL 413
Our Web Site
contains a <a href=article.ihtml?ID=684>report</a> by Past President
Moseley concerning the American Bar Association’s Resolution favoring immediate
action by Congress on Asbestos Legislation Exposure.Whether
you represent plaintiffs or defendants in the maritime industry, a study
of the pending Senate Bill should be interest to you.
2.SUMMER
BOARD MEETING
The summer meeting of the Association’s Board of
Directors will take place in Seattle, Washington on August 1st
and 2nd, 2003.Board member,
Jim Whitehead and Seattle member, Bruce King are handling arrangements
for the meeting. We invite all the members of the Association from the
Seattle area to participate.A presentation
on matters of local interest will be given by Seattle members and it is
expected that CLE credit will be available for those in attendance.
3.FALL
MEETING 2003
The Fall 2003 meeting of the Association will be
held at the Fairmont Southhampton Princess Hotel in Bermuda from October
28th through November 1st, 2003.The
meeting format has been changed. Sports Day will be held on Wednesday.
Seminars providing eight CLE credits will be held on Thursday and Friday
mornings. Committee Meetings will be held on Thursday and Friday afternoons. The
General Meeting and formal closing dinner will take place on Saturday.
The Planning Committee is arranging for an interesting
selection of Speakers who, in their own rite, will be a draw for our members.Please
be assured the selected speakers are experts in their area of the law and
the presentations will reflect the current state of world affairs and how
that affects the maritime community.
4.INTERNATIONAL
ACTIVITIES
A.IMO
LEGAL COMMITTEE
The IMO Legal Committee continues to be extremely
active. At the Fall meeting
held in London last October, the Committee finalized the amendments to
the Athens Convention.The next
meeting will be held in London April 28 through May 2nd, 2003.The
Legal Committee will address the following issues:
1.Places
of Refuge.
2.Wreck
Removal Convention.
3.The
SUA (Suppression of Unlawful.
Acts
Against the Safety of Marine Transportation
to Combat Terrorism)
Convention.
4.Provision
of Financial Security – Seafarers Rights.
B.COMITÉ
MARITIMÉ INTERNATIONALÉ
The CMI will hold a colloquium in Bordeaux, France,
June 10th through June 13th.The
subject matter will be: (1) Electronic Trade; (2) General Average; (3)
Transport Law – The Uncitral Initiative; and (4) Places of Refuge.Early
indications point to a large attendance of our Association Members.If
you have not received any details from the CMI and would like further information,
please call me.
The second CMI function of interest is scheduled
for Vancouver, British Columbia in May/June 2004.Our
Association member, Dr. Frank Wiswall, the CMI’s Vice President will report
on the details of these meetings at our May 2nd, 2003, General
Meeting.
As reported earlier, the CMI draft instrument on
the International Carriage of Goods By Sea has been forwarded to the United
Nations Commission on International Trade Law (Uncitral). The Maritime
Law Association’s members, Past President, Chester Hooper, Michael Sturley,
Vincent DeOrchis and George Chandler are members of the United States delegation.They
are advising the head of the delegation, Mary Helen Carlson of the State
Department’s Office of the Assistant Legal Advisor for Private International
Law. The delegation met for two weeks in March at the United Nations to
continue the review, and they report that the matter is proceeding, albeit
slowly. The next meeting will be in Vienna in October 2003 at which time
it is hoped that a draft will be completed by Uncitral for consideration.
The Association owes a great deal of thanks to the members of the Team
who have been actually representing the MLA in this matter.It
is the Association’s hope that an acceptable new and improved set of rules
will be forthcoming soon.
ACTIVITES OF THE PRESIDENT
ON BEHALF OF THE ASSOCIATION
The Association’s Officers held the January meeting
in Washington on January 15th , 2003, and, in conjunction with
the meeting, hosted a lunch for the heads of the legal departments of those
branches of the government with whom members of the Association work throughout
the year. In attendance were the Navy and Coast Guard Judge Advocate Generals,
the senior Justice Department attorney in charge of environmental crimes
and officials from NOAA.
In March I had the pleasure of representing the
Association at Tulane, first, on Sunday evening, March 16th,
as guest speaker at the Tulane Law Review Dinner honoring the Editors and
Staff of the Law Review; and, secondly, I addressed the opening session
of the Tulane Admiralty Law Institute, expressing our Association’s support
for the seminar, and Tulane’s Maritime Law program.
On April
12th I attended in Seattle, Washington The Tenth Annual Judge
John R. Brown Admiralty Moot Court Competition finals, first, as a Judge
of the Semi-Final Round Judges; and, secondly, to present the Maritime
Law Association of the United States Award for Best Brief submitted in
the competition.
On Monday, April 28th, 2003, I will be
a guest speaker at the AIMU Seminar in New York covering matters of Marine
Insurance.
SCHEDULE OF FUTURE MLA RELATED EVENTS
1.The IMO Legal
Committee will meet in London April 28th – May 2nd
and October 28th to November 1st, 2003.
2.The Association
of Average Adjusters’ annual meeting and dinner will be held on May 8th,
2003, in London.
3.The Comite
Maritime International Colloquium will be held in Bordeaux, France June
10th through June 13th, 2003.
4.SEALI will
hold it annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia on June 27th and
28th, 2003.
5.The Summer
Board Meeting of The Maritime Law Association of the United States will
be held in Seattle, Washington, August 1st and 2nd,
2003.
6.The annual
Fall General Meeting of The Maritime Law Association of the United States
is to be held at the Fairmont Princess Hotel in Bermuda, October 28th
through November 1st, 2003
7.The Spring
meeting of The Maritime Law Association of the United States will be held
at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York at 42 West 44th
Street, New York on Friday, May 7th, 2004.
Sincerely,
Raymond
P. Hayden
President
