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Admiralty & Maritime Law - The Law of The Sea (C.Silliman 2008)
Admiralty & Maritime Law - The Law of The Sea (C.Silliman 2008)
• Generally:
– Contracts involving the operation and management of merchant
vessels and the carriage of goods and passengers by water are
maritime contracts within the admiralty jurisdiction, governed by
a comprehensive body of statutory and case law.
– These contracts include:
• Charter Parties (“leases” in land-based law terminology)
• Bills of Lading
• Contracts for the furnishing of repairs, supplies and other services to
vessels.
Charter Parties
• A charter is an agreement in which a shipowner
places his/her/its ship at the disposal of another.
The written instrument by which a vessel is
leased is a charter party.
• Types of charter parties:
– Demise
– Time
– Voyage
Demise Charter
• The essence of this type of charter is the owner’s
surrender of possession and control of the vessel to the
charterer (the “lessee” in land-law terminology), who
then succeeds to many of the rights and obligations of
the owner; thus the demise charterer is usually called the
owner pro hac vice.
• In many demise charters, the charterer also obtains the
services of the owner’s master and crew, who become
the employees of the charterer during the term of the
charter. If the owner does not furnish the master and
crew, such a demise is called a “bareboat charter.”
Demise Charter (Cont’d.)
Secondary Authorities
Admiralty and Maritime Law Guide, www.admiraltylawguide.com
Gilmore, Grant and Black, Charles L., Jr., The Law of Admiralty (2d.ed. 2001)
Jury Instructions
Schoenbaum, Thomas J., Admiralty and Maritime Law (3d ed. 2001)
Conclusion
• I leave you with the sailor’s traditional farewell:
May you have fair winds and
following seas!