Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
THE INSTITUTE OF MARITIME LAW
The Institute of Maritime Law of the University of Southampton was inaugurated on 1st December 1983 with the following address by the Hon. Michael Summerskill.
Sea links—Maritime lawyers and the market-place
the Hon. Michael Summerskill.*
The links between various groups
In this lecture I shall talk about three groups, whom I call the people in the marketplace, or just “the market-place”; the academics; and the judges and practising lawyers, whom I will treat as one group, if Lord Brandon will not object, and call them the practitioners. This Institute of Maritime Law seeks, in the words of a letter which I had from Professor Jackson, to be “a focal point for Maritime Law research which could also form a bridge between the academics and practitioners”. I thought that I would discuss the links or connecting lines in the triangle formed by these three groups—the market-place; the academics; and the practitioners. In talking of this triangle and its points, I shall not assume that any one group is at the apex.
I hope to show that these links, these connecting lines, are necessary. E. M. Forster, in two famous words, “only connect”, said what he felt about human relationships. I can imagine his Bloomsbury friends saying that it was a tiresome remark, and, in the then new age of the telephone, that a great deal depended upon whom you were being put through to.
The market-place consists of those dealing directly with maritime transport, usually for reward,1 and with its ancillary occupations.2 I shall discuss how things seem when looked at from the market-place. I hope that we can agree that the views of the market-place are of some relevance to the academics and the practitioners. It was Sir John Hoskyns who said recently, in the lecture3 which occasioned criticism from some civil servants:
“My experience of the past few years has convinced me that the way businessmen think and act is more relevant [to the management of the economy] than that of most of the politicians, civil servants, academics and commentators who have concerned themselves with the nation’s problems so far”.
He does not say or mean, though, that the businessmen were necessarily all thinking and acting correctly.
* Partner, Thos. R. Miller & Son. President of the London Maritime Arbitrators’ Association.
1 Although oil rigs are not in any conventional sense transporting cargo; and naval ships may be involved in problems of maritime law such as collision and salvage.
2 In that market-place there are shipowners, charterers, shippers and receivers; and their brokers—the chartering brokers and the insurance brokers; and hull and cargo insurers, and the shipowners, and charterers’ mutual clubs. Then there are the adjusters, classification societies, surveyors, and sale and purchase brokers. There are also the arbitrators, mostly commercial people.
3 Institute of Directors, Annual Lecture, 1983.
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